V'i 


^ 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


I 


Mf-y^"  f^P^ 


EDUCATIONAL   PROBLEMS 

« 

IN 

COLLEGE  AND  UNIVERSITY 


ADDRESSES  DELIVERED  AT  THE  EDUCATIONAL  CONFERENCE 
HELD  AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN,  OCTOBER  FOUR- 
TEENTH, FIFTEENTH  AND  SIXTEENTH,  NINETEEN  HUNDRED 
AND  TWENTY,  ON  THE  OCCASION  OF  THE  INAUGURATION  OF 
PRESIDENT  MARION  LEROY  BURTON,  PH.D.,  LL.D. 


EDITED  BY  JOHN  LEWIS  BRUMM 


ANN  ARBOR 
PUBLISHED  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN 

1921 


Ed.  &  Psych. 
Library 


•i  ^ 


The  addresses  delivered  at  the  Educational  Conference,  held 
at  the  University  of  Michigan  in  connection  with  the  inauguration 
of  President  Burton,  dealt  with  college  and  university  problems  of 
such  paramount  importance  that  it  was  deemed  desirable  to  assemble 
them  in  the  present  volume. 


1579274 


EDUCATIONAL  CONFERENCE 


HELD  AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN,  OCTOBER  FOUR- 
TEENTH, FIFTEENTH  AND  SIXTEENTH,  NINETEEN  HUNDRED 
AND  TWENTY,  ON  THE  OCCASION  OF  THE  INAUGURATION  OF 
PRESIDENT  MARION  LEROY  BURTON,  PH.D.,  LLD. 


PROGRAM 


THURSDAY,  OCTOBER  14 
9:30  A.M.  ACADEMIC  PROCESSION 

10:30  A.M.  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

1 .  Historical    Address : 

Harhy  B.  Hutchins,   LL.D.,   President  Emeritus  of   the  University 

2.  Induction  of  the  President: 

Victor    M.    Gore,    B.S.,   LL.B.,    Regent    of    the   University 

3.  Inaugural   Address:    The   Functions   of   the   State   University 

Marion  LeRoy   Burton,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

4.  The    Functions    of    the    Governing    Board    in    the    Administration    of    a 
University 

William   L.   Abbott,   M.E.,   Trustee,   University  of   Illinois 

5.  The   Functions  of   the  Faculty  in  the  Administration   of  a  University 

Joseph  A.   Leichton,   Ph.D.,  Ohio  State  University 

2 :3o  P.M.  SESSION     DEALING     WITH     EDUCATIONAL     READJUST- 
MENTS 

1.  The  Integration   of   the  University 

Williston  Walker,  Ph.D.,   D.D.,  L.H.D.,   Provost   of  Yale  University 

2.  Academic    Freedom    and    Social    Responsibility 

Robert    E.    Vinson,    LL.D.,    President    of    the    University    of    Texas 

3.  The  Place  of  the  University  in  Training   for  Citizenship 

RoscoE    Pound,    Ph.D.,    LL.D.,    Dean    of    the   Law   School,    Harvard 
University 

4.  The  University  and   International   Relationships 

Sir    Robert    A.    Falconer,    LL.D.,    D.Litt.,    C.M.G.,    President    of 
the  University  of  Toronto 

8:30  P.M.  RECEPTION  to  Delegates,  Guests,  and  Members  of  the  Faculty 


EDUCATION.^L  SESSION 

FRIDAY,  OCTOBER  15 
io:ooA.M.  SESSION  DEALING  WITH  ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS 

1.  The  Growtli  of  the  State  Universities 

Lotus  D.  Coffman,   Ph.D.,   President  of  the  University  of  Minnesota 

2.  The    Cost    of    Higher    Education    and    Its    Bearings    Upon    Taxation 

S.\ML"EL    P.    CapEN,    Ph.D.,    Director    of    the    American    Council    on 
Education 

3.  The   Supply   of   Adequately   Trained   University   Teachers 

Frederick  J.   E.   Woodbridge,   LL.D.,   Dean,  Columbia   University 

4.  The    Present   Status    of   Research   in    American    Universities 

Vernon    L.    Kellogg,    M.S.,    Secretary    of    the    National    Research 
Council 

2:30  P.M.  SESSION   DEALING   WITH    CONSTRUCTIVE   MEASURES 

1.  The   Junior    College    Movement 

A.  Ross  Hill,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  the  University  of  Missouri 

2.  Differentiation    of    the    Units    of    the    Educational    System    to    Meet    the 
Needs   of   Varying   Types   of   Students 

Charles  A.  Prosser,  Ph.D.,  Director  of  the  William  Hood  Dunwoody 
Institute 

3.  Cooperation    Between    Colleges    and    Universities 

DoKALD  J.  Cowling,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,   President  of  Carleton  College 

4.  Cooperation   with    the    Vital    Activities   of   Life 

Frederick   P.   Fish,   A.B.,   Trustee  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology 

7:30P.M.  BANQUET:    Delegates,   Guests,  and  Members  of   the  Faculty 

Speakers:  A.  Lawrence  Lowell,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  Harvard  Univer- 
sity; E.  A.  Birge,  Ph.D.,  Sc.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  the  University  of 
Wisconsin;  Harry  Augustus  Garfield,  LL.D.,  L.H.D.,  President 
of  Williams  College;  and  Thomas  E.  Johnstox,  A.B.,  LL.D., 
Superintendent  of   Public  Instruction,   Michigan 

SATURDAY,  OCTOBER  16 
9:30  A.M.  MEETING  OF  REGENTS  OF  STATE  UNR'ERSITIES 

1.  The   Salary    Problem 

Honorable    Charles   L.    Sommers,    A.B.,    Regent    of    the   University 
of   Minnesota 

2.  Student  Fees  and  Tuition   Charges 

Theodore  M.  Hammond,  Regent  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin 

3.  Discussion   of   Problems   Confronting   the   Governing   Boards   of  Universities 


CONTENTS 

Page 

The  State  University  Idea 1 

Harry  Burns  Hutchins,  LLD. 

Induction  Address    22 

Victor  M.  Gore,  B.S.,  LL.B. 

The  Function  of  the  State  University 25 

Marion  LeRoy  Burton,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 
The  Functions  of  the  Governing  Board  in  the  Administration 

of  a  University    54 

William  L.  Abbott,  M.E. 
The    Functions   of   the   Faculty   in   the   Administration   of   a 

University   62 

Joseph  A.  Leighton,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

The  Integration  of  the  University 80 

Williston  Walker,  Ph.D..,  D.D.,  L.H.D. 

Academic  Freedom  and  Social  Responsibility 93 

Robert  H.  Vinson,  LL.D. 

The  Place  of  the  University  in  Training  for  Citizenship 103 

Roscoe  Pound,  Ph.D.,  LLD. 

The  University  and  International  Relations 119 

Sir  Robert  A.  Falconer,  LL.D.,  D.Litt.,  C.M.G. 

The  Growth  of  State  Universities 132 

Lotus   D.   Coffman,   Ph.D. 

The  Cost  of  Higher  Education  and  Its  Bearing  on  Taxation .  .    148 

Samuel  P.   Capen,  Ph.D. 

The  Supply  of  Adequately  Trained  University  Teachers 159 

Frederick  J.  E.  Woodbridge,  LL.D. 

Research  in  the  Universities 175 

Vernon  L.  Kellogg,  M.S. 

The  Junior  College  Movement 188 

A.  Ross  HUl,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 
Differentiation  of  the  Units  of  the  Educational  System  to  Meet 

the  Needs  of  Varying  Types  of  Students 199 

Charles  A.  Prosser,  Ph.D. 

Cooperation   Between   Colleges  and  Universities 225 

Donald  J.  Cowling,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

Cooperation  With  the  Vital  Activities  of  Life 241 

Frederick  P.  Fish.,  A.B. 

The  Art  of  Examination 268 

A.  Lawrence  Lowell,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

The  Salary  Problem 274 

Charles  L.  Sommers,  A.B. 

Student  Fees  and  Tuition  Charges 286 

Theodore  M.  Hammond 


THE  STATE  UNIVERSITY  IDEA 

HARRY  BURNS  HUTCHINS,  LL.D. 

President  Emeritus  of  the  University  of  Michigan 


Upon  the  occasion  that  marks  the  beginning  of  a  new 
administration  of  the  University,  it  has  been  thought 
fitting  that  something  be  said  regarding  the  develop- 
ment of  the  state  university  idea,  with  particular  refer- 
ence to  its  development  within  the  Commonwealth  of 
Michigan.  I  have  been  asked  to  speak  briefly  upon  the 
subject.  As  the  expressed  wish  of  our  President  is  with 
me  equivalent  to  a  command,  I  shall  attempt  to  do  so.  I 
am  embarrassed,  however,  by  having  to  traverse  ground 
already  thoroughly  covered  upon  several  public  occa- 
sions at  this  University,  by  speakers  of  distinguished 
merit — ground,  therefore,  presumably  familiar  to  many 
of  you — and  by  the  fact  that  the  time  limit,  wisely  impos- 
ed out  of  consideration  for  the  audience,  precludes  little 
more  than  the  barest  outline.  But  notwithstanding  these 
and  other  handicaps  that  I  might  mention,  I  shall  try  to 
contribute  something  by  way  of  brief  narrative  and 
occasional  suggestion. 

The  policy  of  state  assistance  to  higher  education  is 
not  in  this  country  of  recent  origin.  It  has  a  distinct 
historical  basis.  It  long  antedates  the  coming  of  the 
state  university;  for  the  older  institutions  of  the  East 
and  of  the  South  not  infrequently  during  the  early,  and 
particularly  during  the  colonial,  period  of  their  histoiy 
depended  largely  upon  public  appropriations  for  their 
support.  The  policy,  however,  under  the  old  regime, 
never  became  so  general  or  so  deeply  rooted  that  it  dom- 


2  1XAUGUR-\L  SESSION, 

mated  educational  development.  Its  exercise  was  ap- 
parently special  and  usually  in  cases  of  emergency.  Due 
to  the  fact  that,  later,  private  benefaction  largely  took 
the  place  of  public  bounty  in  the  support  of  the  older 
foundations  and  to  the  further  fact  that,  in  the  older 
states  particularly,  numerous  privately  endowed  col- 
leges were  chartered,  higher  education,  and,  indeed, 
practically  all  education  in  those  sections,  as  a  rule  as- 
sumed the  individualistic  or  special,  rather  than  the 
public  or  general,  form  of  development.  It  was,  there- 
fore, left  to  the  newer  states  to  vrork  out  and  apply 
generally  the  policy,  fortunately  kept  alive  by  Federal 
legislation,  that  advanced  training,  as  well  as  elemen- 
tary, may  properly  and  legitimately  be  furnished  by  the 
state. 

And  so  it  came  about  that  the  state  university  idea, 
as  understood  to-day,  has  been  largely  developed  and 
applied  through  the  exercise  of  what  has  been  aptly 
termed  the  ** educational  consciousness"^  of  the  people  of 
our  central  and  western  states.  This  consciousness  has 
been  defined  as  being  **a  stage  in  civilization  in  which 
the  people  conceive  of  education  as  a  natural  and  neces- 
sary activity  of  the  State  itself."-  Belief  in  education 
furnished  by  the  people  for  the  people  characterized 
many  of  the  pioneer  leaders  of  this  region  and  inspired 
them  to  labor  in  its  behalf.  Early  in  their  history  they  a- 
woke  verj'  generally  to  the  notion  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  state,  a  manifest  and  necessary  duty,  to  furnish  to  all, 
rich  and  poor  alike,  ample  opportunities  for  education  of 
all  grades,  including  the  highest.  They  appreciated  fully 
that  in  no  other  way  can  the  highest  and  best  civic  de- 
velopment be  realized.     Their  attitude  is   apparent  in 

1.  The  Spirit  of  the  State  Universities,  by  President  Pritchett.  Atlantic 
Monthly  (loio)  p.  741. 

2.  The  Spirit  of  the  State  Universities,  by  President  Pritchett.  Atlantic 
Monthly  (1910)  pp.  742-744. 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS  3 

plans  for  state  educational  systems  and  in  the  fact  that 
such  plans  as  a  rule  have  a  basis  in  the  organic  law.  Not 
only  in  the  states  formerly  constituting  the  Northwest 
Territory,  but  also  in  the  central  and  western  states 
generally,  as  well  as  in  some  of  the  southern,  the  people 
have  spoken  directly  upon  the  subject  in  their  state  con- 
stitutions, and  in  no  uncertain  terms.  In  every  instance 
the  culmination  of  the  system  is  the  state  university. 
Remarkable  examples,  these,  of  wisdom,  of  foresight  and 
of  comprehensive  vision.  Not  the  result  of  accident,  sure- 
ly, or  of  impulse,  but  rather  of  sound  and  constructive 
thinking  and  sane  leadership.  It  has  been  said  with 
truth  that  ^*no  such  exhibition  of  well-formed  and 
definite  educational  conciousness  was  ever  before  seen  in 
the  organization  of  new  states  or  provinces;"^  and, 
further,  that  **if  our  American  democracy  were  to-day 
called  to  give  proof  of  its  constructive  ability,  the 
state  university  and  the  public  school  system  which  it 
crowns,  would  be  the  strongest  evidence  of  its  fitness 
which  it  could  offer. '  '^ 

The  educational  conciousness  of  which  I  speak  was 
unquestionably  stimulated  by,  if  it  did  not  originate  in, 
that  *' great  charter  of  freedom,  morality  and  intel- 
ligence, ' '  the  Ordinance  of  1787.  You  will  remember  that 
while  providing  that  the  vast  territory  northwest  of  the 
Ohio  river  should  never  be  cursed  by  human  slavery,  it 
declared  also  that  '' Religion,  morality  and  knowledge 
being  necessary  to  good  government  and  the  happiness 
of  mankind,  schools  and  the  means  of  education  shall  for- 
ever be  encouraged,"  a  declaration  which,  in  the  words 
of  my  distinguished  predecessor  in  the  presidency  of 
this  University,  "should  be  engraved  in  letters  of  gold  on 
fitting  monuments  in  every  state  that  was  carved  out  of 

3.  Selected  Addresses,  by  President  Angell,  p.  64. 

4.  Ten  Brook's  American  State  Universities,  p.  94. 


4  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

the  Northwest  Territory. '  '^  It  is  a  declaration  that  can- 
not be  too  frequently  quoted,  for  therein  is  embodied  a 
fundamental  principle  of  government  by  the  people,  a 
principle  essential  to  the  very  life  and  perpetuity  of  the 
Eepublic.  Grounded  in  religion,  morality,  and  the 
general  education  of  the  people,  our  free  institutions  will 
be  safe.  They  will  withstand  the  attacks  of  those  who 
through  ignorance  or  discontent  or  vicious  leadership 
would  undermine  and  utterly  destroy.  Who  can  measure 
the  influence  upon  the  religious,  social,  economic  and 
civic  life  and  development  of  the  people  of  the  newer 
states,  and,  indeed,  of  the  whole  Nation,  that  has  come  di- 
rectly and  indirectly  from  this  great  enactment?  The 
public  leaders  of  the  day  doubtless  had  an  appreciative 
vision,  but  it  must  have  fallen  far  short  of  the  actualities 
of  the  present. 

Acting  in  accordance  with  the  imperative  spirit  of 
the  Ordinance,  Congress  at  once  made  possible  the  carry- 
ing out  of  the  educational  ideals  expressed  therein,  by 
providing  for  public  land  grants  for  educational  pur- 
poses. It  is  quite  apparent  that  the  two  enactments  were 
complementary  parts  of  the  same  general  plan.  The  first 
contains  the  declaration  quoted  in  regard  to  the  en- 
couragement of  education,  and  the  second,  specific  pro- 
vision for  the  reservation  of  lands  from  the  public  do- 
main for  the  maintenance  of  public  schools  and  for 
university  purposes.  Moreover,  at  the  same  session  ap- 
propriations of  lands  for  the  support  of  a  university  and 
schools  in  Ohio  were  made.  These  were  significant  be- 
cause the  first  of  a  long  series  of  land  appropriations  by 
the  General  Government  for  educational  purposes. 
Although  not  containing  a  specific  declaration  as  to 
future  policy,  this  legislation  of  1787  really  served  to  fix 

5.  Selected  Addresses,  by  President  Angell,  p.  64. 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS  5 

the  essential  features  of  a  national  educational  land 
grant  policy,  followed  thereafter  without  exception  in 
the  admission  of  new  states.  Without  the  Federal  aid 
that  has  thereby  come  to  them,  it  is  doubtful  if  the  people 
of  the  newer  states  would  have  developed  so  soon,  so 
generally  and  so  completely  as  they  have,  the  educational 
consciousness  that  stands  for  intellectual  training  of  all 
grades  at  public  expense.  Because  of  the  poverty  of  the 
pioneer  and  the  physical  obstacles  to  be  overcome  in  the 
early  days  of  his  struggle,  such  development  would, 
without  this  outside  encouragement,  have  been  slow  and 
incidental  and  might  never  have  been  realized.  That 
the  initial  Federal  appropriation  of  two  townships  of 
land  to  each  state  must  have  served  as  a  substantial 
stimulus,  is  apparent  from  the  fact  that  in  many  cases 
such  lands  were  the  principal  source  of  support  for  the 
state  university  during  the  early  years  of  its  history. 
For  example,  it  was  not  until  thirty  years  after  the 
founding  of  this  University  that  the  first  appropriation 
in  its  behalf  was  made  by  the  State.  Up  to  1867  the  en- 
tire expense  of  its  maintenance,  with  the  exception  of 
that  met  by  a  state  loan  of  $100,000,  was  paid  out  of  the 
income  from  the  proceeds  of  Federal  land  sales  and  the 
small  amount  received  from  student  fees. 

The  educational  consciousness  of  the  people  of  Mich- 
igan was  first  authoritatively  expressed  during  the  terri- 
torial regime.  The  declaration  was  in  the  form  of  an  en- 
actment, bearing  date  August  26,  1817,  by  the  Governor 
and  Judges  of  the  Territory.  Even  earlier  there  had 
been  signs  of  an  intellectual  awakening.  An  interest  in 
popular  education  had  become  apparent.  Among  the 
pioneers  was  a  considerable  sprinkling  of  men  who  had 
enjoyed  the  advantages  of  liberal  training.  They  were 
alive  to  the  important  fact  that  the  successful  develop- 


6  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

ment  of  a  new  and  powerful  commonwealth  would  de- 
pend largely  upon  the  educational  opportunities  furnish- 
ed to  the  youth  of  the  Territory.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  France,  England,  and  the  United  States,  successive- 
ly, had  dominion  over  the  region.  And  it  is  of  interest  to 
note  that,  in  the  educational  awakening  of  these  early 
days,  there  was  something  of  race  rivalry.  This  is  ap- 
parent in  a  French  editorial  appearing  in  The  Detroit 
Gazette  in  the  summer  of  1817.  In  this  the  writer 
appeals  to  the  Frenchmen  of  the  Territory  to  begin 
immediately  to  give  an  education  to  their  children.  He 
calls  their  attention  to  certain  practical  advantages  that 
without  training  they  cannot  expect  to  enjoy.  "In  a 
little  time,"  he  says,  ''there  will  be  in  this  Territory  as 
many  Yankees  as  French,  and  if  you  do  not  have  your 
children  educated  the  situations  will  all  be  given  to  the 
Yankees. '  '^  The  early  numbers  of  this  paper,  which  was 
printed  partly  in  English  and  partly  in  French,  contain 
numerous  brief  articles,  both  original  and  selected,  upon 
education  and  what  it  will  mean  for  the  people.  It  is 
quite  clear  that  before  the  passage  of  the  first  foraial  en- 
actment upon  the  subject,  the  current  was  setting  in  the 
direction  of  larger  educational  opportunities  for  the 
people.  Public  agitation  doubtless  suggested  the  neces- 
sity of  constructive  legislation  and  probably  hastened  it. 
The  act  of  August  26,  1817,  to  which  reference  has 
been  made,  is  of  distinct  historical  importance.  It  marks 
the  formal  beginning  of  the  public  educational  movement 
in  Michigan,  the  birth  of  what  may  without  impropriety 
be  called  the  Michigan  idea,  because  first  practically  de- 
veloped here,  namely,  a  system  of  education  supported  by 
the  people  for  the  people,  crowned  by  the  University  and 
providing  for  elementary  training  of  all  grades.    In  lan- 

6.  Ten   Brook's  American   State  Universities,  p.  94. 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS  7 

guage  the  enactment  is  absurdly  pedantic.  It  is  entitled 
''An  Act  to  establish  the  Catholepistemiad,  or  University 
of  Michigania."  Instead  of  professor,  the  act  provides  for 
the  ''didactor"  and  instead  of  the  professorship  for  the 
' '  didaxia. ' '  The  thirteen  ' '  didaxiim, ' '  or  professorships, 
of  which  the  Catholepistemiad  was  to  be  composed,  cov- 
ered a  wide  range  of  human  knowledge,  much  wider  than 
anything  theretofore  attempted  by  any  American  uni- 
versity. It  was  evidently  contemplated  by  the  author  of 
the  legislation  that  the  president  of  the  projected  uni- 
versity should  be  both  a  prodigy  in  science  and  an  up-to- 
date  cyclopedia  in  general  knowledge,  for  it  was  provid- 
ed therein  that,  in  addition  to  his  administrative  duties, 
he  should  be  "the  didactor  or  professor  of  catholepis- 
temia,  or  universal  science."  Knowing  this,  our  new 
President  will  realize,  I  am  sure,  that  there  are  special 
compensations  in  having  been  born  late,  particularly 
when  he  is  further  informed  that  by  a  supplementary  act 
it  was  provided  "that  the  annual  salary  of  the  President 
....  shall  be  for  the  present  twenty-five  dollars". 

But  notwithstanding  the  absurdly  pedantic  language 
of  the  enactment  and  the  criticisms  that  its  classification 
of  knowledge  invites,  it  embodies  a  scheme  not  only  for 
university  training  but  also  for  state-wide  education 
and  intellectual  development  that  is  extraordinary  for 
its  comprehensiveness  and  breadth  of  view.  Judge 
Woodward,  the  author  of  the  act,  who  has  been  charac- 
terized as  "the  organizing  mind  among  the  members  of 
the  territorial  government,"'  was  apparently  cognizant 
of  the  fact  that,  as  a  rule,  universities  had  developed 
before  the  lower  schools  and  had  been  an  inspiring  in- 
fluence in  building  them  up.  He  therefore  provided  that 
the  president  and  professors  of  the  University  should 

7.  Ten  Brook's  American  State  Universities,  p.  01. 


8  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

not  only  be  responsible  for  advanced  university  training 
and  have  power  to  regulate  all  the  concerns  of  the  in- 
stitution, but  also  that  they  should  have  the  power  (I 
quote)  ''to  establish  colleges,  academies,  schools,  libra- 
ries, musaeums,  athenaeums,botanic  gardens,laboratories 
and  other  useful  literary  and  scientific  institutions  con- 
sonant to  the  laws  of  the  United  States  of  America  and 
of  Michigan,  and  to  provide  for  and  appoint  directors, 
visitors,  curators,  librarians,  instructors,  and  instruc- 
trixes,  in,  among,  and  throughout  the  various  counties, 
cities,  towns,  townships,  or  other  geographical  divisions 
of  Michigan. ' '  The  scheme  contemplated  complete  dom- 
ination by  the  University  of  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  the  Territory  and  the  future  State,  domination, 
not  by  regents  or  trustees,  but  by  the  president  and  pro- 
fessors, who  were  to  be  appointed  by  the  governor.  It 
centered  in  the  president  and  professors  a  wealth  of  ad- 
ministrative authority  that,  but  for  the  inclusion  of  the 
president,  would  probably  satisfy  the  ambitions  of  the 
most  progressive  of  modern  university  faculties.  But 
whatever  crititcism  may  be  made  of  the  scheme,  either  as 
to  form  or  substance,  one  cannot  but  conclude  that  it  em- 
bodied a  broad  conception  of  what  the  educational  oppor- 
tunities for  the  people  should  be.  It  was  strikingly  sug- 
gestive and  doubtless  prepared  the  way  for  future  educa- 
tional development,  as  a  less  ambitious  plan  might  not 
have  done. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  beginning.  But  little  was  ac- 
complished under  the  act,  but  that  little  was  necessary, 
for  it  was  in  the  elementary  field.  Nothing  in  the  way  of 
the  organization  of  university  instruction  was  attempted. 
Such  instruction  was  not  then  needed.  An  entire  univer- 
sity faculty,  however,  was  appointed.  It  consisted  of  two 
men,  but  each  was  expected  to  function  in  a  large  way. 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS  9 

The  act  provided  that  more  than  one  professorship  might 
be  conferred  upon  the  same  person.  The  Reverend  John 
Monteith,  the  Presbyterian  Minister  of  Detroit,  was  ap- 
pointed to  seven,  and  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  among  the 
seven  was  the  professorship  of  universal  science,  he  be- 
came President;  Gabriel  Richard,  the  Roman  Catholic 
Apostolical  Vicar  of  Michigan,  was  appointed  to  six,  and 
the  professorship  of  intellectual  sciences  being  among  the 
number,  he  became  Vice-President  by  the  terms  of  the  act. 
It  has  been  suggested  that  the  appointment  of  the  two 
men,  each  a  representative  of  a  different  communion,  and 
both  enjoying  the  confidence  of  the  two  great  religious 
divisions  of  the  community,  was  in  the  nature  of  '*a 
happy  prophecy  of  the  truly  liberal  spirit  which  was  sub- 
sequently to  guide  in  the  conduct  of  the  University."^ 
Both  were  men  of  broad  training  and  high  ideals.  Ap- 
parently they  worked  together  in  narmony  and  for  what 
they  thought  to  be  the  greatest  good  of  the  pioneer  com- 
munity. They  adapted  themselves  and  their  work  to  the 
conditions  by  which  they  were  surrounded.  Ecclesias- 
tical form  gave  way  when  necessary  for  the  securing  of 
what  would  be  for  the  best  interest  of  all.  An  in- 
cident illustrative  of  this  is  found  in  a  prayer  in  his 
broken  English  that  is  recorded  as  having  been  used  by 
Father  Richard  on  one  occasion  in  the  legislative  council : 
''0  Lord,  bless  dis  legislatif  council,  and  enable  dem  to 
act  for  de  peple  and  not  for  demselfs."  Such  a  petition 
would  not,  I  think,  be  out  of  place  in  the  modem  legis- 
lative assembly.  In  the  exercise  of  their  professorial  and 
administrative  trust,  these  leaders  established  a  few  pri- 
mary schools,  ordained  a  course  of  instruction  for  class- 
ical academies,  provided  for  such  an  academy  in  Detroit, 

8.  Selected  Addresses,  by  President  Angell,  p.  69. 


10  IXAUGUR.^  SESSION 

and  also  for  a  college,  under  the  name  of  The  First  College 

of  Michigania. 

But  notwithstanding  the  fact  that,  during  the  brief 
period  of  its  existence,  this  university  organization  func- 
tioned in  so  elementary  a  way,  it  ser^^ed  the  people  as 
effectively  as  could  have  been  expected.  Moreover,  and 
this  was  most  important  for  the  future  of  education,  it 
kept  alive  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  before  the  people  the 
idea  and  the  ideal  of  a  complete  public  system  of  educa- 
tion, crowned  and  stimulated  by  the  University.  So  far 
as  appears  in  the  record,  it  was  not  on  account  of  any 
neglect  on  the  part  of  those  to  whom  this  trust  had  been 
committed  or  because  of  any  public  criticism  of  the  way 
in  which  it  had  been  administered,  that  in  1821  an  act 
was  passed  by  the  Governor  and  Judges  that  changed  to 
some  extent,  and  in  one  particular  radically,  the  original 
act.  In  addition  to  substituting  English  for  the  polyglot 
nomenclature  of  Judge  Woodward,  and  thereby  re- 
christening  the  institution  as  the  University  of  Mich- 
igan, it  created  in  place  of  the  president  and  professors 
as  the  governing  and  directing  body,  a  Board  of  Trustees. 
Apparently  the  change  did  not  provoke  protest  from  the 
president  and  professors,  possibly  because  of  the  fact 
that  the  two  persons  who  then  functioned  as  the  entire 
organization  were  among  the  twenty-one  trustees  named 
in  the  new  act.  In  breadth  of  view  and  comprehensive- 
ness of  powers  conferred  upon  the  governing  body,  the 
new  act  was  substantially  along  the  lines  of  the  old.  In 
one  particular  it  was  notably  significant,  for  it  embodied 
in  the  form  of  special  enactment  a  principle  that  has  been 
a  cardinal  one  during  the  entire  life  and  development  of 
the  University,  namely,  that  there  shall  be  no  discrimina- 
tion against  trustee,  president,  professor,  instructor  or 
pupil  on  the  ground  of  religious  belief  or  affiliation. 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS  1 1 

Under  the  new  act  but  little  in  the  way  of  educa- 
tional development  was  accomplished.  Although  schools 
of  an  elementary  and  secondary  grade  were  maintained 
by  the  trustees,  the  new  organization  failed  to  impart 
new  vigor  to  the  movement  initiated  under  the  earlier 
legislation.  The  act  served  chiefly  as  a  medium  of  trans- 
mission, so  to  speak,  of  the  Michigan  idea.  That  it  so 
operated  has  been  recognized  by  the  highest  tribunal  of 
the  State,  for  the  Supreme  Court  has  declared  that  there 
is  a  legal  and  corporate  continuity  from  the  University  of 
1817  through  that  of  1821  to  the  foundation  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  to-day. 

Upon  the  admission  of  Michigan  to  the  Union,  the 
educational  consciousness  of  the  people,  which  for  a  time 
had  lagged,  was  stirred  anew.  Doubtless  additional  vigor 
was  given  to  it  by  the  prospective  opportunities  and  the 
larger  responsibilities  of  statehood.  But  its  new  and 
effective  manifestation  came  principally,  I  am  sure,  from 
informed  and  constructive  leadership.  As  already  in- 
timated, Michigan  was  most  fortunate  in  having  among 
its  early  settlers  a  considerable  number  of  men  of  liberal 
training,  great  energy,  marked  force  of  character,  and 
withal  of  large,  intelligent  and  comprehensive  views  as  to 
the  educational  opportunities  for  the  people  that  a  young 
and  growing  commonwealth  should  provide.  They  had 
the  wisdom  to  look  into  the  future  and  to  plan  for  it. 
Among  them  were  two  men  who  rendered  to  the  people  a 
service,  the  value  of  which,  I  fear,  is  not  in  our  day  fully 
appreciated.  Their  memory  and  the  story  of  what  they 
did  should  be  familiar  to  the  people — should  be  perpetu- 
ated upon  enduring  tablets.  I  refer  to  General  Isaac  E. 
Crary  and  the  Reverend  John  D.  Pierce.  The  former,  a 
graduate  of  the  Trinity  College,  Connecticut,  came  to 
Michigan  in  1832;  the  latter,  a  graduate  of  Brown,  in 


12  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

1831.  They  settled  in  what  is  now  the  city  of  Marshall. 
Having  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  liberal  training,  they 
were  interested  in  the  development  of  education  in  the 
state  of  their  adoption.  As  neighbors  they  often  discuss- 
ed the  subject  and  together  visualized  ideal  provisions 
for  the  commonwealth  that  was  soon  to  be  organized. 
They  realized  that  while  the  territorial  scheme  embodied 
many  of  the  essential  principles,  it  fell  short,  both  in  form 
and  substance,  of  being  the  ideal  as  a  permanent  plan  for 
the  state.  It  happened  that  in  the  course  of  their  discus- 
sions both  read  and  were  profoundly  impressed  by  M. 
Victor  Cousin's  famous  Eeport  on  the  Prussian  system  of 
education.  This  contained  the  clearest  and  strongest  pre- 
sentation that  had  yet  been  made  of  a  complete  system  of 
public  instruction,  created,  supported  and  supervised  by 
the  state.  In  France  and  England  the  book  had  made  a 
distinct  impression.  Through  a  translation,  it  was  becom- 
ing known  in  the  United  States.  A  recent  historian  of  the 
University  declared  it  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the 
single  volume  of  this  report  that  found  its  way  into  the 
oak  openings  of  Michigan  and  into  the  hands  of  Messrs. 
Crary  and  Pierce  ''produced  results,  direct  and  indirect, 
that  surpass  in  importance  the  results  produced  by  any 
other  educational  volume  in  the  whole  history  of  the 
country,"^  Under  the  inspiration  of  its  reading,  Crary, 
who  had  been  made  a  member  of  the  Constitutional  Con- 
vention and  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Education, 
drafted  the  article  on  that  subject  that  was  incorporated 
into  the  first  Constitution  of  the  State.  The  plan  was 
most  comprehensive.  Briefly  stated,  it  provided  for  pri- 
mary schools,  secondary  schools  and  a  university,  all  to 
be  supported  from  public  funds  and  to  be  under  state 
supervision.  It  created  the  office  of  Superintendent  of 
Public  Instruction,  the  first  of  the  kind  in  the  United 

9.  Hinsdale's  History   of  the  University   of  Michigan,   p.   16. 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS  13 

States;  prescribed  that  the  legislature,  as  soon  as  the 
circumstances  of  the  State  would  permit,  should  provide 
for  the  establishment  of  libraries,  one  at  least  in  each 
township.  Furthermore,  it  made  it  the  duty  of  the  Legis- 
lature to  encourage  intellectual,  scientific  and  agricul- 
tural improvement.  A  statesmanlike  conception  surely 
of  the  educational  needs  of  a  new  state !  A  most  generous 
organic  embodiment  of  the  principle  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  State  to  educate  as  well  as  to  govern!  A  most  ex- 
pressive and  comprehensive  declaration  of  the  educa- 
tional consciousness  of  the  people,  of  the  genuine  Mich- 
igan spirit!  Although  modified  and  enlarged  by  subse- 
quent changes,  particularly  so  far  as  the  University  is 
concerned,  in  regard  to  the  selection  of  regents  and  the 
powers  of  the  board  in  the  matter  of  handling  and  ex- 
pending university  funds,  it  is  in  scope  and  substance 
substantially  the  constitutional  plan  of  to-day. 

A  statutory  plan  for  the  organization  of  the  Univer- 
sity under  the  new  constitution  was  presented  in  January 
1837.  It  had  been  prepared  by  the  Reverend  John  D. 
Pierce,  who  had  theretofore  been  appointed  Superintend- 
ent of  Public  Instruction.  With  General  Crary  he  had 
studied  carefully  the  Cousin  report.  That  he  had  been 
influenced  by  it  is  apparent  in  the  scheme  that  he  formu- 
lated. It  was  broad  and  comprehensive,  evidently  the 
result  of  careful  investigation,  reflection,  and  wise  judg- 
ment. It  embodied  in  a  most  liberal  way  the  spirit  of  the 
constitutional  provision.  In  the  three  departments  spe- 
cified— Literature,  Science  and  the  Arts,  Law  and 
Medicine — the  scope  of  instruction  outlined  was  com- 
parable with  that  of  the  University  of  to-day.  The  plan 
made  a  deep  impression  upon  the  Legislature.  It  was 
adopted  with  practically  no  opposition.  The  act  es- 
tablishing the  University,  based  upon  the  plan  of  the 
Superintendent,  was  approved  March  18,  1837.    The  first 


14  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

meeting  of  the  regents  was  held  June  5,  1837,  usually 
considered  the  natal  da}^  of  the  University.  This  legis- 
lation, so  changed  subsequently  as  to  be  less  elaborate  in 
detail  and  far  more  general  and  withal  adapted  to  th© 
changed  and  enlarged  constitutional  provisions,  is  now 
the  recognized  charter  of  the  University.  In  its  changed 
form,  enlarged  powers  were  conferred  upon  the  regents, 
and  they  were  authorized  to  extend  the  scope  of  instruc- 
tion by  the  addition  of  such  other  departments  as  they 
might  deem  necessary  and  as  the  state  of  the  university 
fund  might  allow. 

Such,  then,  in  outline,  is  the  story  of  the  origin  and 
initial  development  in  the  Territory  and  State  of  Mich- 
igan of  the  state  university  idea.  Of  attendant  mistakes, 
perils  and  threatened  disasters  I  cannot  speak.  Nor  will 
the  time  allotted  permit  a  consideration,  even  in  outline, 
of  the  marvelous  growth  of  the  movement  in  extent  and 
efficiency  during  the  last  three  quarters  of  a  century.  A 
brief  reference  to  it  by  way  of  comparison  and  sugges- 
tions as  to  a  few  of  the  contributing  causes,  are  all  that  I 
can  attempt. 

Although  the  organizing  act  was  passed  in  1837,  the 
University  did  not  begin  to  function  until  September, 
1841.  Two  professors,  who  constituted  the  entire  faculty, 
then  welcomed  to  the  classrooms  five  freshmen  and  one 
sophomore.  Four  years  later,  the  first  class,  numbering 
eleven,  was  graduated.  Contrast  this  with  the  present. 
To-day  the  teaching  force  exceeds  five  hundred,  the  stu- 
dent body,  ten  thousand.  Of  late,  each  year  more  than 
twelve  hundred  graduating  credentials  have  been  award- 
ed. Eight  schools  and  colleges  now  offer  curricula  that 
as  a  whole  cover  a  very  large  part  of  the  field  of  human 
knowledge.  Libraries  and  laboratories  furnish  opportuni- 
ties for  university  work  of  every  grade.  A  recognized  in- 
tellectual center  for  the  discovery  and  dissemination  of 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS  15 

truth  as  well  as  for  the  teaching  of  it!  Monumental 
buildings  on  every  side  and  extensive  modern  equipment 
testify  to  material  growth.  And  all  this  within  a  period 
but  little  beyond  the  memory  of  men  now  living !  A  uni- 
versity young  in  years  when  compared  even  with  the 
older  endowed  universities  of  this  country,  but  may  we 
not  say,  without  exaggeration,  not  unworthy  of  a  place  by 
their  side  if  the  measure  be  that  of  accomplishment? 
There  is  truth  in  the  suggestion  that  *4n  this  country 
where  we  judge  men  by  their  achievements  rather  than 
by  their  lineage,  we  properly  judge  of  institutions  by 
their  deeds  rather  than  by  their  age."^°  An  historical 
background  may  certainly  mean  much  to  a  university.  It 
adds  to  its  dignity  and  prestige.  But,  as  the  history  of  the 
state  university  movement  clearly  shows,  it  is  by  no 
means  essential  to  distinct  and  far-reaching  success.  It 
not  infrequently  brings  traditions  that  vex,  and  that 
restrain  and  stifle  expansion.  If  a  university  is  young, 
it  has  fewer  excrescences  to  be  lopped  off." 

And  now,  what  are  some  of  the  contributing  and 
dominant  causes  of  this  striking  growth? 

The  first,  which  is  common  to  all  state  universities, 
is  found  in  the  fact  that  Michigan  is  the  people 's  univer- 
sity. Its  life  and  prosperity  are  intimately  and  inextrica- 
bly bound  up  with  the  life  and  prosperity  of  the  people  of 
the  Commonwealth.  Unhampered  by  tradition,  it  can  and 
does  so  order  its  work  as  to  serve  the  people.  Its  endow- 
ment, the  best  that  the  wit  of  man  has  yet  devised,  is  in 
the  wealth  of  the  State  and  in  the  hearts  of  its  people. 
Open  to  all,  rich  and  poor  alike,  a  place  where  one  is 
measured  by  what  one  does  rather  than  by  the  factitious 
standard  of  family  or  wealth,  a  splendid  example,  none 
better,  of  sane  and  regulated  democracy,  an  institution  in 

10.  Selected  Addressed,  by  President  Angell,  p.  63. 

11.  University  of  Michigan  Semi-Centennial,  pp.   194,   195. 


16  IXAUGUR-\L  SESSION 

touch  with  all  the  people  and  in  which  ever\^  taxpayer, 
ffreat  and  small,  is  a  stockholder,  the  University  has  the 
respect  and  confidence  of  the  people  and  they  willingly 
contribute  liberally  to  its  support. 

In  the  fact  that  the  constitutional  provision  regard- 
ing the  control  of  the  University  and  the  use  of  its  funds, 
as  frequently  interpreted  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
State,  confers  upon  the  regents  plenary  power,  we  have 
another  reason  and  a  most  important  one,  for  its  pros- 
perity and  orderly  development.  So  far  as  the  general 
supervision  of  the  institution  and  the  use  of  university 
moneys  are  concerned,  the  regents  are  thereby  made  in- 
dependent of  legislative  control.  They  are  not  merely  a 
body  corporate;  they  are  made  by  the  constitution  a  part 
of  the  state  government,  coordinate  with  the  other  parts. 
This  independent  position  of  the  governing  body  has  not 
infrequently  saved  the  University  from  serious  em- 
barrassment. That  the  important  trust  imposed  has  been 
most  faithfully  exercised  by  the  loyal  and  devoted  men 
who,  without  compensation,  have  served  upon  the  board, 
is  the  universal  testimony.  But  for  their  disinterested 
devotion  to  public  duty,  the  constitutional  safeguard 
would  at  times  have  failed  to  protect.  Moreover,  in  their 
wisdom  thev  have  avoided  the  notion,  from  which  some 
of  the  newer  state  universities  have  suffered,  that  re- 
gents should  administer  as  well  as  legislate. 

Another  reason  for  the  extraordinary  development 
of  the  University  is  to  be  found  in  the  comprehensive  con- 
stitutional and  statutory  scheme  to  which  reference  has 
been  made.  More  liberal  than  anything  elsewhere  at- 
tempted or  even  seriously  considered  at  the  time  it  was 
launched,  it  attracted  the  attention  of  teachers  and  stu- 
dents alike.  EmbodWng  as  it  did  the  spirit  of  service  of  a 
high  order  for  all  the  people,  together  with  high  ideals  of 
scholarship,  its  influence  soon  became  much  more  than 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS  1 7 

local.  It  was  for  this  country  something  new  and  bold  in 
the  field  of  higher  education,  but  something  nevertheless 
that  commended  itself  to  many  thinking  and  progressive 
Americans  as  grounded  in  wisdom  and  quite  worth  while. 
It  arrested  the  attention  of  the  man  who  became  the  first 
president  of  the  University,  Doctor  Henry  Philip  Tap- 
pan.  He  found  in  it  his  ideal  of  a  university  plan.  He  was 
profoundly  impressed  by  the  opportunity  to  build  up  a 
higher  institution  of  learning  '*as  an  inseparable  part 
and  living  member  of  a  state  system  of  public  instruc- 
tion," and  so  he  came.  '^It  was  the  charm  of  this  high 
promise  and  expectation,"  he  said,  that  drew  him  to 
Michigan.^^ 

But  educational  plans,  monumental  buildings,  and 
generous  equipment,  even  of  the  most  approved  sort,  do 
not  alone  make  a  university.  In  the  absence  of  the  inspi- 
ration that  great  leaders,  great  scholars,  and  great 
teachers  alone  can  give,  the  really  essential  spirit  is  lack- 
ing. This  Michigan  has  always  realized.  Few  univer- 
sities have  been  so  fortunate  as  was  this  in  the  men  who 
were  called  to  do  the  initial  and  fundamental  work  of  the 
first  administration,  and  in  those  who  later,  during  the 
second  and  third,  devoted  themselves  loyally  and  effect- 
ively to  the  work  of  the  superstructure.  Judging  from  the 
record  of  what  he  did,  one  cannot  but  conclude  that  no 
better  man  than  the  first  president  could  have  been  chosen 
for  the  special  problems  that  confronted  the  University 
during  the  time  of  his  administration,  1852-1863.  He  has 
been  described  as  '*a  man  of  commanding  presence,  of 
marked  intellectual  endowments, of  large  famil- 
iarity with  the  history  of  education, ....  of  broad  and  well 
defined  views  on  university  policy, '  '^^  and  withal  as  an  or- 
ator of  unusual  power  and  effectiveness.    It  has  been  said 

12.  Hinsdale's  History   of   the   University   of   Michigan,   p.   43. 

13.  Selected  Addresses,  by  President  Angell,  p.  84. 


18  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

that  "he  aroused  people  to  an  appreciation  of  the  fact  that 
our  state  system  of  education  could  not  reach  its  proper 
development  without  a  well-equipped  university  as  its 
heart  to  send  the  energies  of  its  life  down  through  the 
schools. '  '^*  More  than  any  other  man  Doctor  Tappan  was 
the  founder  of  the  University.  Under  his  wise  leadership 
and  with  the  cooperation  of  learned,  earnest,  and  devoted 
men  as  associates  upon  the  faculties,  its  foundations  were 
laid  broad  and  deep.  During  the  brief  administration  of 
his  immediate  successor,  Doctor  Haven,  a  man  of  rare 
adaptability,  of  genial  temperament,  of  grace  and  power 
as  a  public  speaker,  and,  in  addition,  a  man  of  ideas  and 
ideals  in  regard  to  higher  education,  the  building  of  the 
superstructure  was  begun.  But  the  chief  credit  for  this 
great  work  must  be  given  to  the  grand  man  who  for 
thirty-eight  years  so  quietly,  but  yet  so  skillfully  and  so 
masterfully,  guided  and  moulded  the  fortunes  of  the  Uni- 
versity and  made  of  it  an  instrumentality  whose  influ- 
ence, it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say,  has  touched  and  quick- 
ened the  spirit  of  youth  in  a  way  and  to  an  extent  rarely 
equaled.  Doctor  James  Burrill  Angell  came  to  the  Uni- 
versity at  a  time  when  leadership,  such  as  he  could  give, 
was  needed — a  man  of  rare  scholarship,  of  sound  judg- 
ment, informed  and  matured  by  periods  of  successful  ser- 
vice in  other  fields,  of  keen  intellectual  grasp,  having  the 
poise  and  the  dignity  that  inspire  confidence,  the  genial 
nature  that  bespeaks  the  warm  heart,  the  diplomatic 
quality  that  avoids  unnecessary  offense,  together  with  a 
felicity  in  public  address  that  combined,  in  an  unusual 
way,  simple  clarity  of  statement  with  the  deep  feeling  and 
restrained  forcefulness  that  carry  conviction.  With  quali- 
ties such  as  these  what  could  we  expect  but  constructive 
leadership  of  a  high  order?  Is  it  any  wonder  that  new 
enthusiasm  was  awakened — that  a  great  university  was 

14.  Selected  Addresses,  by  President  Angell,  p.  85. 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS  19 

builded  upon  the  foundations  that  had  been  laid?  Do 
you  ask  what  was  done  1  Look  about  you.  For  the  super- 
structure of  to-day  is  essentially  the  work  of  Doctor 
Angell  and  his  associates.  Later  additions  and  exten- 
sions have  been  made.  Remarkable  growth  has  followed. 
But  the  glory  of  large  and  real  accomplishment  is  with 
him  and  them. 

I  hardly  need  add  that  the  great  development  under 
the  administrations  to  which  reference  has  been  made, 
could  never  have  been  realized  but  for  the  fact  that  re- 
markable wisdom  was  exercised  in  the  selection  of  the 
teaching  force.  Men  of  national  and  some  of  inter- 
national reputation  were  in  all  the  faculties.  The  fame 
of  these  faithful  teachers  and  scholars  and  their  suc- 
cessors has  been  one  of  the  chief  contributing  reasons  for 
the  growth  and  standing  of  the  University.  This  it  is 
that  has  given  to  us  a  student  community  with  representa- 
tives, not  only  from  every  state  and  territory  of  the 
Union,  but  also  from  thirty-four  different  foreign 
nations.  May  the  authorities  of  the  University  never  for- 
get— they  will,  I  am  sure,  never  forget — that  it  is  upon 
men,  big  men,  trained  men,  upon  great  and  compelling 
personalities  with  native  gifts  and  abundant  scholarly 
attainment,  more  than  upon  all  else  combined,  that  the 
fortune  and  reputation  of  the  University  depend. 

But  in  order  to  secure  such  men  and  the  equipment 
that  they  should  have,  large  resources  must  be  provided. 
And  this  leads  me  to  suggest  that  without  the  generous 
and  continued  support  of  the  people  of  the  State,  as  ex- 
pressed in  liberal  appropriations,  particularly  during  re- 
cent years,  the  growth  and  development  of  the  present 
could  never  have  been  realized.  Because  a  large  and  con- 
tinuous income,  not  contingent  upon  the  vote  of  suc- 
cessive assemblies,  but  regularly  assessed  upon  the  tax- 
able property  of  the  State,  has  been  provided,  an  income 


20  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

that  automatically  increases  with  the  increase  in  the 
wealth  of  the  State,  the  University  has  had  a  substantial 
source  of  revenue  upon  which  it  could  depend.  Knowing 
what  could  be  expected,  the  authorities  have  been  able  in 
their  plans  to  look  beyond  the  immediate  present.  When 
we  call  to  mind,  also,  that  in  addition  to  this,  special  ap- 
propriations for  buildings  and  other  purposes,  aggregat- 
ing large  amounts,  have  been  made,  in  recent  years  prac- 
tically without  opposition,  we  cannot  but  realize  that  the 
support  of  the  people  has  been  most  generous  and  that 
under  their  fostering  care  the  future  of  the  University 
will  be  assured. 

Among  other  causes  contributing  to  the  growth  and 
success  of  the  University,  one  stands  out  so  prominently 
that  I  should  not  omit  a  brief  reference  to  it,  the  influence 
and  the  loyalty  and  the  enthusiastic  support  of  our  alum- 
ni. Forty-five  thousand  and  more,  doing  things  worth 
while  in  every  state  of  the  Union  and  in  many  foreign 
lands,  prominent  in  every  field  of  activity  and  in  the  pub- 
lic service,  they  illustrate  in  their  lives  the  value  of  what 
they  received  here.  It  has  been  said  with  truth  that  by 
their  achievements  they  are  commending  their  Alma 
Mater  "not  only  for  the  mental  discipline  that  she  gave 
them,  but  also  for  the  brave,  earnest,  manly  spirit  which 
by  her  free  methods  and  by  the  character  of  her  teachers 
she  has  nourished  in  them.'"^  But  this  is  not  all,  for  with 
their  prosperity  is  coming  a  realization  that  loyalty  and 
devotion  may  well  be  expressed  by  substantial  donations 
and  bequests.  That  this  is  so  is  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  alumni  gifts  during  the  past  eleven  years  total  more 
than  three  million  dollars.  This  is  a  state  university, 
but  there  are  those  who  love  it;  its  alumni  love  it;  they 
feel  and  know  that  they  are  a  part  of  it.  In  its  continued 
prosperity  they  are  vitally  interested.    Upon  their  devo- 

15.  Selected   Addresses,   by    President   Angell,   p.    97. 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS  2 1 

tion  and  helpfulness  we  can  at  all  times  unhesitatingly 
depend. 

So  much  for  the  past.  To-day  we  set  up  a  new  mile- 
stone in  the  history  of  the  University,  It  will  mark  for  all 
time  the  beginning  of  its  fifth  administration.  Our  eyes 
are  now  turned  to  the  future.  That  we  are  entering  upon 
an  era  of  great  accomplishment,  there  is  not,  in  my  judg- 
ment, the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  Problems  to  be  solved? 
Yes,  many,  no  inconsiderable  number  that  will  call  for 
wisdom,  judgment,  patience  and  administrative  skill  of 
the  highest  order.  That  the  qualities  and  experience 
necessary  for  their  successful  mastery  are  possessed  in 
large  measure  by  our  new  leader,  we  confidently  believe. 
And  we  believe,  further,  that  his  great  task  will  be 
made  easier  and  his  burdens  lighter  by  the  enthusiastic 
and  continued  cooperation  of  regents,  faculties,  students 
and  alumni  and  by  the  loyal  devotion  of  the  people  of 
this  great  Commonwealth,  all  of  which  he  will  surely 
have. 


INDUCTION  ADDRESS 


HON.   VICTOR   M.    GORE,   B.S.,   LL.B. 

Regent  oj  the  University  of  Michigan 


The  people  of  the  State  of  Michigan  dedicated  this 
University  to  the  cause  of  higher  education.  That  means 
it  was  dedicated  to  the  progress  of  knowledge  as  well  as 
the  care  and  culture  of  men  and  women.  To  preserve  it 
unimpaired  to  future  generations  it  was  given  lodgment 
in  our  State  Constitution.  There  it  remains  in  security 
and  strength.  It  is,  therefore,  a  part  and  parcel  of  the 
government  itself.  It  is  preeminently  of  the  people.  We 
owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  electors  of  1850  who 
answered  in  the  affirmative  this  question:  Will  a  free 
people  tax  themselves  for  higher  education!  That  plendid 
verdict  meant  that  growth,  and  ever  larger  growth 
for  the  institution,  awaited  the  coming  years.  Prog- 
ress has  become  its  breath  of  life.  Under  wise  and  whole- 
some leadership  the  University  has  gro^\m  in  efficient 
strength  until  to-day  the  friends  of  education  the  world 
over  join  us  in  cheering  its  past  achievements  and  wel- 
coming its  future  and  its  problems.  The  University  has 
thus  justified  the  faith  and  leveled  up  to  the  ideals  of  its 
founders.  It  has  produced  in  gratifying  abundance 
noble  men  and  noble  women,  and  that  is  the  true  measure 
of  its  service  and  glory. 

Michigan  may  well  be  proud  of  its  presidents.  From 
the  first  they  have  been  uniformly  able  men.  Upon  every 
tongue  to-day  are  the  names  of  Tappan  and  Haven,  Angell 
and  Hutchins.  These  inspiring  names  span  Michigan 
history  like  a  bow  of  promise.    They  are  forever  linked 


INDUCTION  ADDRESS  23 

together  in  the  great  constructive  work  of  the  University. 
Every  lover  of  education  should  rejoice  that  the  work  of 
these  distinguished  leaders  will  be  continued  by  a  master- 
ful executive,  possessing,  in  rounded  measure,  the  full 
quota  of  Michigan 's  requirements. 

This  day  is  indeed  auspicious.  It  belongs  to  Mich- 
igan. It  marks  in  its  career  a  memorable  transition.  We 
close  one  notable  administration  and  formally  install  its 
successor.    And  that  hour  has  struck. 

Marion  LeRoy  Burton:  By  reason  of  your  distin- 
guished successes  and  eminence  as  an  administrator,  you 
have  been  called  to  the  leadership  of  this  great  Univer- 
sity by  the  unanimous  action  of  its  Board  of  Regents. 
The  trust  imposed  is  preeminently  a  sacred  one.  This  old 
University  has  a  deep  and  firm  hold  upon  the  affections 
as  well  as  upon  the  pride  of  the  people  of  the  State  of 
Michigan.  Into  your  hands  we  cheerfully  confide  its  tra- 
ditions, laden  with  the  worth  and  work  of  its  sons  and 
daughters.  We  bring  you,  in  its  able  faculties,  an  army 
of  trained  and  zealous  experts  and  educators.  We  bring 
you  vast  groups  of  devoted  and  vigilant  alumni.  We  turn 
over  to  your  fostering  care  its  high-minded  and  eager 
student  body.  We  place  in  your  hands  the  honor  and 
good  name  of  the  University,  priceless  above  all  things 
rich  or  rare.  We  bring  you,  also,  the  good  will  and  fervent 
prayers  of  the  people  of  this  great  State ;  those  who  main- 
tain this  institution,  cheer  its  progress,  and  glory  in  its 
mission. 

Moreover,  as  I  deposit  with  you  the  charter  and  keys 
of  the  University,  I  make  you  the  trustee  of  its  vast  pro- 
perties; its  sacred  donations  coming  from  benefactors 
both  living  and  dead;  its  noble  fellowships,  uplifting  in 
their  appeal  to  worthy  ambition.  And  we  are  pleased  to 
pledge  you  now  and  here  in  this  vast  presence  the  cordial 
cooperation  and  support  of  its  Board  of  Regents.    All 


24  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

these  are  yours.  All  these  unite  to  welcome,  to  strengthen, 
and  to  prosper  your  administration.  AVe  thus  turn  over  to 
your  tried  and  able  hands  the  very  flower  of  Michigan  life 
and  endeavor.  This  we  do,  indulging  the  high  and  confi- 
dent hope  that  you  may  lead  this  University  to  transcend- 
ent accomplishments  of  which  poets  have  dreamed  and 
prophets  spoken.  Cheered  by  your  efforts,  inspired  by 
your  example  and  successes,  the  people  of  this  Common- 
wealth and  the  friends  of  education  the  country  over,  bid 
you  God-speed. 

And  now,  in  the  name  and  by  the  direction  of  its 
Board  of  Eegents,  I  pronounce  you,  Marion  LeRoy  Bur- 
ton, President  of  the  University  of  Michigan. 


THE  FUNCTIONS  OF  THE  STATE  UNIVERSITY 

MARION  I,EROY  BURTON,  PH.D.,  I,I,.D. 

President  of  the  University  of  Michigan 


The  University  of  Michigan  has  a  notable  history.  Its 
past  is  the  occasion  of  just  pride  in  the  heart  of  every 
citizen  of  the  state.  The  name  of  President  James  Burrill 
Angell  is  permanently  identified  with  educational  states- 
manship in  America.  The  University  to-day,  its  faculties 
and  students,  its  buildings  and  campus,  give  ample  proof 
of  the  wise  and  sagacious  leadership  of  President  Hutch- 
ins  during  the  last  decade.  Since  1837  this  University  has 
filled  a  vital  place  in  American  education.  For  a  genera- 
tion its  primacy  among  the  state  universities  of  our  coun- 
try was  conceded.  That  several  highly  important  educa- 
tional developments  were  initiated  here  is  obvious  to  all 
who  are  familiar  with  the  history  of  higher  learning  in 
America. 

This  University  was  founded  and  has  been  maintain- 
ed by  the  State  of  Michigan.  It  therefore  owes  primary 
obligations  to  this  state.  However  large  it  may  become, 
or  however  attractive  it  may  prove  to  students  from  all 
quarters  of  the  globe,  it  finds  its  chief  satisfaction  in  serv- 
ing its  own  constituency.  Nevertheless  it  shares  with  all 
of  the  colleges  and  universities  of  the  land,  represented 
here  to-day,  many  common  tasks  of  higher  education.  It 
counts  it  a  rare  honor  to  be  numbered  among  these  institu- 
tions. 

The  aims  and  functions  of  a  true  university,  by  the 
very  nature  and  terms  of  the  problem,  defy  definition. 
Even  so,  it  is  our  privilege,  upon  occasions  such  as  this,  to 


26  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

ask  ourselves  anew  just  what  we  are  attempting  to  do. 
Specifically,  what  do  we  conceive  to  be  the  function  of  the 
state  university?  I  venture  to  answer  that  the  function 
of  the  state  university  is  to  serv^e  the  state  and,  through 
the  state,  to  serve  the  nation  and  the  world. 

This  assumption  requires,  first,  that  we  make  some 
appraisal,  though  necessarily  incomplete,  of  the  state; 
secondly,  that  we  attempt  some  critical  estimate  of  the 
university;  and  finally,  that  we  suggest  some  forms  of 
service  which  the  university  should  render  to  the  state. 

I. 

Any  complete  appraisal  here  of  the  State  of  Michigan 
is  quite  impossible.  "We  can,  however,  recognize  certain 
considerations  which  are  pertinent  to  our  discussion  dur- 
ing this  conference. 

The  external  facts  are  interesting  simply  because 
they  serve  as  the  basis  for  a  marvelously  beautiful  and 
fascinating  life.  Here  is  a  state  the  same  size  as  England 
and  Wales  and  one-fourth  the  size  of  France,  inhabited, 
according  to  the  census  just  completed,  by  three  and  two- 
thirds  millions  of  people,  gathered  from  every  land  under 
the  heavens.  Morover,  this  state  has  the  high  honor  and 
distinction  of  being  one  of  the  integral  units  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  which  must  be  numbered  among  the 
really  great  nations  of  all  history.  Michigan  gives  to  and 
receives  from  every  state  within  the  Union.  She  takes  her 
color  and  quality  from  the  whole  nation.  Strategically 
located  in  the  very  heart  of  America,  within  easy  access  of 
many  of  the  chief  centers  of  population,  proud  of  possess- 
ing the  fourth  city  of  the  nation,  conscious  of  her  in- 
dustrial power,  she  may  be  regarded  as  typically  Ajneri- 
can.    To  appraise  her  is  in  reality  to  interpret  America. 

The  vital  facts  are  compelling  because  they  tell  us 
that  here  may  be  seen  millions  of  people  engaged  in  agri- 
culture, mining,  manufacturing,   and  commerce.     They 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  27 

work  and  they  attempt  to  play.  They  are  prosperous, 
possessing  now  about  six  billion  dollars  worth  of  pro- 
perty. They  desire  to  use  rightly  and  wisely  their  leisure 
time.  They  are  associated,  perhaps  unconsciously,  and 
without  any  serious  realization  of  its  implications,  in  the 
task  of  community  building.  They  have  assumed  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  American  citizenship.  They  have  de- 
veloped here  a  political,  social,  industrial,  and  educational 
order.  Mighty  problems  have  presented  themselves  for 
solution.  The  city  of  Detroit  alone  is  spending  this  year 
thiry-one  million  dollars  for  her  public  schools.  As  we 
look  at  Michigan,  we  are  thrilled  by  this  heroic  commun- 
ity, undaunted  by  its  problems  and  inspired  by  a  great 
vision  of  its  future. 

America  as  a  whole  has  made  great  contributions  to 
this  Middle  West.  If  our  Pilgrim  forefathers  were  marked 
by  independence,  initiative,  and  moral  insight,  these 
characteristics  have  been  especially  necessary  in  the  de- 
velopment of  these  great  western  empires.  Along  with  the 
nation,  the  west  must  face  problems  and  utilize  oppor- 
tunities which  are  apparent  to  every  observer  of  American 
life. 

Our  country  to-day  is  suffering  from  lack  of  national 
unity.  This  statement  does  not  need  to  be  supported  by 
statistical  data,  graphic  charts,  or  long  arguments.  We 
are  a  polyglot  people.  We  have  been  gathered  from  all  of 
the  nations  of  the  earth.  These  peoples  have  come  with 
varying  traditions,  differing  religious  beliefs,  and  with 
strange  expectations.  They  have  been  confronted  by 
stern  realities  rather  than  thrilling  national  hopes.  They 
have  experienced  chilling  disappointments  and  suffered 
from  bitter  disillusionments.  And  yet  out  of  this  hetero- 
geneous mass  we  are  making  America.  The  war  revealed 
in  sharp  outline  our  dangers.  Sometimes  a  flash  comes  out 
of  the  dark  pit  of  our  social  and  economic  world.    But 


28  INAUGUILU  SESSION 

through  it  all,  the  war  made  us  see  the  possibilities  of  a 
new  order  and  illuminated  our  rough  path  with  the  endur- 
ing light  which  emanates  from  the  eternal  truths  upon 
which  democracy  rests. 

The  striking  fact  about  America  is  that  more  than 
any  other  nation  she  has  been  released  from  the  past. 
Here  is  at  once  her  strength  and  her  weakness.    Forward- 
looking  movements  in  Europe   are   inevitably  counter- 
balanced by  the  traditions  of  the  past.  In  America,  liberty 
easily  becomes  license,  and  freedom  tends  toward  anarchy. 
At  any  rate,  the  plasticity  of  our  entire  social  order  is  ap- 
parent.    Our  detachment  from  the  past  has  manifested 
itself  in  a  curious  disregard  even  for  the  laws  enacted  by 
ourselves  and  in  a  strange  disrespect  for  the  courts  of  our 
own  making.    With  all  of  our  worship  of  the  individual, 
human  life  has  been  held  a  cheap  thing.    Arnold  Bennett 
refers  to  ''that  sublime,  romantic  contempt  for  law  and 
for  human  life,  which,  to  the  European,  is  the  most  discon- 
certing factor  in  the  social  evolution  of  your  states."  Our 
escape  from  ancient  tyrannies  and  limitations  has  tended 
to  soften  our  lives  and  to  rob  them  of  their  rigor  and 
vigor.  The  old  puritanical  ideal  of  strictness  and  severity 
has  been  replaced  by  laxness  and  looseness.    Luxury  and 
extravagance  have  laid  heavy  penalties  upon  virility  and 
militancy.     Eeligious  devotions  have  been  replaced  by 
riotous  dancing,  and  hard  work  by  happy  play.     Hugo 
Miinsterberg,   in   his   efforts   to   describe    the   traits    of 
Americans,  noted  ''everywhere  the  same  willingness  to 
do  what  the  public  likes,  and  nowhere  the  question  what 
the  public  ought  to  have. ' ' 

This  separation  from  the  past  arises  inevitably  out  of 
the  conditions  which  gave  birth  to  our  nation  and  which 
have  made  possible  its  present  prosperity.  The  one  thing 
all  Americans  share  is  the  future.  A  common  hope  has 
lured  them  on.    The  master^'  of  a  great  physical  empire 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  29 

challenged  every  atom  of  their  strength  and  courage.  The 
establishment  of  free  institutions  commanded  their  best 
intellects.  The  creation  of  a  new  civilization  required 
patriots,  prophets,  and  statesmen.  However  much  they 
may  have  loved  the  past,  the  logic  of  events  forced  them 
to  face  the  future.  No  doubt,  many  a  natural  conservative, 
who  instinctively  cherished  the  lessons  of  the  past,  was 
compelled  by  his  American  enviroment  to  live  in  a  city 
without  foundations,  whose  main  asset  was  its  certain 
growth  and  whose  chief  glory  was  its  future.  Any  effort 
to  appraise  America  cannot  neglect  the  remarkable  fact 
that  she  has  opportunity  to  become  whatever  her  citizens 
desire  to  make  her.  She  is  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter. 
In  a  very  unique  sense  she  is  free  from  the  past  and  at- 
tached to  the  future. 

The  chemist  would  say  that  America  is  in  a  nascent 
state.  She  is  just  beginning  to  exist,  to  come  into  being,  to 
develop,  to  lay  hold  on  her  own.  We  have  made  some 
show  of  political  democracy.  We  need  not  confuse  our- 
selves to-day  by  a  recital  of  the  terrible  mistakes  we  have 
made  in  our  efforts  to  set  up  a  representative  government. 
The  corruption  of  our  politics  has  at  times  become  a 
stench  in  our  nostrils.  But  we  take  courage  because  our 
tendencies  seem  to  be  in  the  right  direction.  Socially,  we 
have  achieved  results  worthy  of  our  democratic  aims.  We 
have  no  actual  class  distinctions.  Men  and  women  of 
ability  are  freely  given  the  chance  to  pass  from  one  group 
to  another.  Leisure  classes  are  rapidly  becoming  extinct. 
Respectability  no  longer  attaches  to  social  parasites.  In- 
dustrially, the  situation  is  far  less  satisfactory.  Un- 
doubtedly, our  paramount  domestic  problem  centers  in  a 
more  satisfactory  application  of  the  principles  of  democ- 
racy to  the  production  and  distribution  of  wealth.  No 
single  group  sees  this  problem  with  greater  clearness,  nor 
with  more  concern,  than  those  who  represent  the  com- 


30  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

munity  as  a  whole.  The  public  will  become  articulate 
sooner  or  later.  It  will  not  permit  its  interests  to  be  sacri- 
ficed to  conflict  between  groups  nor  jeopardized  by  a  con- 
tinued series  of  compromises.  From  the  standpoint  of  her 
artistic  interests,  America  is  showing  most  hopeful  prog- 
ress. In  painting,  sculpture,  architecture,  and  the  drama, 
there  is  every  evidence  of  a  deepening  appreciation  of  aes- 
thetic values.  America  is  actually  beginning  to  grow. 
The  war  forced  her  into  the  conscious  stage  of  self -defini- 
tion. To-day  she  is  groping  about  for  the  way  to  higher 
levels  of  living.  Just  now  we  need  the  message  which 
Lowell  put  into  the  mouth  of  Hosea  Biglow,  a  message 
reminiscent  of  the  days  of  shallow,  superficial  optimism, 
and  crude,  if  not  vulgar,  boasting: 

'"Ef  we're  agoin'  to  prove  we  be  growed  up, 
'Twun't  be  by  barkin'  like  a  terrier  pup, 
But  turnin'  to  an'  makin'  things  as  good 
Ez  wut  we're  oilers  braggin'  that  we  could." 

In  America  a  modern  prophet  could  truthfully  pro- 
claim *'My  people  are  destroyed  for  lack  of  knowledge." 
At  first  thought  it  may  seem  that,  above  all  nations, 
America  has  a  passion  for  education.  We  expend  huge 
sums  for  the  training  of  our  youth.  At  the  present  mo- 
ment more  than  twenty  millions  of  children  are  being 
trained  at  public  expense.  To-day  as  never  before  the 
people  believe  in  the  schools.  The  war  revealed  to  literal- 
ly millions  of  men  that  positions  of  leadership  and  oppor- 
tunities for  service  go  to  the  men  of  training  and  know- 
ledge. But  America  suffers  to-day  from  ignorance  more 
than  from  any  other  single  tyranny.  Our  children  may 
have  knowledge  of  the  facts  necessary  for  individual  liv- 
ing. Our  youth  may  acquire  professional  training  of 
high  degree.  Their  minds,  however,  have  not  been  fo- 
cused upon  those  truths  which  are  so  essential  to  a  demo- 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  31 

cratic  community.  The  magnitude  and  diversity  of  our 
country  accentuates  the  problem. 

The  multitude  of  our  concerns  smothers  our  social  in- 
stincts. Preoccupation  with  personal  affairs  dulls  our  in- 
terest in  community  problems.  Intense  competition  in 
business  dealings  tends  to  blur  our  vision.  Marvelous 
possibilities  for  the  promotion  of  basic  enterprises  of  all 
sorts  in  widely  separated  areas  compete  with  public  mind- 
edness  The  disorganization  arising  out  of  a  period  of 
readjustment  tends  to  erase  ethical  distinctions.  Absence 
of  actual  contact  with  other  groups  and  interests  makes 
for  narrow-mindedness.  Experience  alone  can  banish  pro- 
vincialism. Positive  lack  of  knowledge  of  American  con- 
ditions is  chiefly  responsible  for  the  continuation  of  many 
evils.  Failure  to  be  intelligent  upon  public  issues  accounts 
for  much  of  our  weakness.    The  people  need  knowledge. 

Back  of  these  various  aspects  of  American  life  lies  the 
source  of  our  unbounded  confidence  in  the  future.  If  we 
search  for  the  possible  greatness  of  America,  it  will  not 
be  found  in  the  superabundance  of  the  things  which  she 
possesses.  It  will  be  found  rather  in  the  ideals  and  hopes 
which  have  animated  us  from  the  beginning.  "We  may 
speak  of  our  marvelous  physical  empire  and  boast  of  our 
fertile  fields  and  rich  mines.  We  may  point  to  our  great 
cities,  our  unsurpassed  industrial  development  and  our 
material  prosperity.  We  may  rejoice  in  our  colleges,  uni- 
versities, and  cathedrals.  But  these  things  have  value 
only  as  they  express  the  soul  of  America. 

The  very  essence  of  Americanism  is  the  supreme 
value  which  we  place  upon  the  individual.  When  we  talk 
about  freedom,  equality,  and  opportunity,  this  is  what  we 
really  mean.  We  are  attempting  actually  to  say  that 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  is  infinitely  valuable.  We 
are  insisting  that  nothing  in  the  universe  can  be  compared 
to,  or  should  be  given  in  exchange  for,  a  human  being.  We 


32  INAUGUFL\L  SESSION 

know  that  "a  spark  has  disturbed  our  clod."  We  are 
among  the  final  values  of  the  universe.  This  confidence  in 
the  individual  comes  to  practical  expression  in  our  nation- 
al life.  Every  person  is  actually  given  a  chance  to  become 
as  large  and  useful  as  he  was  intended  to  be.  This  is 
Americanism.  This  is  the  promise  that  America  makes 
and  keeps. 

Coupled  with  this  reverence  for  personality  is  the 
ideal  that  work  is  noble.  Here  is  America's  contribution 
to  the  world 's  understanding  of  culture.  We  actually  pro- 
ceed upon  the  hypothesis  that  work  is  sacred.  Every 
citizen  is  expected  to  do  something.  To  be  idle  is  unthink- 
able for  a  sane  and  healthy  American.  This  sense  of  the 
worth  of  work  extends  in  all  directions.  It  commands  not 
service  merely  but  achievement.  It  requires  not  only  dull 
plodding,  but  courage.  It  demands  that  simple  routine  be 
transfused  with  heroism.  For  toil  and  thought  it  substi- 
tutes militancy  and  imagination.  It  was  personified  in 
our  generation  by  Theodore  Eoosevelt. 

Here,  then,  is  America's  outlook:  Having  thrown  off 
the  limitations  of  the  past,  and  consequently  lacking 
unity,  she  must  cast  her  lot  with  the  future.  She  is  just 
coming  into  her  own.  She  is  terribly  deficient  in  know- 
ledge and  experience.  She  is  rich  in  faith  and  imagina- 
tion.   She  believes  in  human  beings  and  worships  work. 

n. 

We  have  said  that  the  function  of  the  state  university 
is  to  serve  the  state,  and,  through  the  state,  to  serve  the 
nation  and  the  world.  It  was  essential  for  us,  therefore, 
even  in  a  very  incomplete  way,  to  ask  ourselves  what  the 
state  and  the  nation  are  and  what  they  need.  Thus  far  we 
have  attempted  to  interpret  our  national  life.  It  now  be- 
comes necessar}^  to  make  a  similar  appraisal  of  the  uni- 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  33 

versity.  We  shall  then,  and  only  then,  be  in  a  position  to 
venture  some  suggestions  regarding  the  forms  of  service 
which  the  university  can  render  to  the  state  and  nation. 

What,  then,  is  a  university?  A  stranger  visiting 
this  or  any  other  institution  of  higher  learning  naturally 
begins  by  inquiring  about  the  size  of  the  campus,  the 
number  of  buildings,  the  equipment  of  the  laboratories 
and  the  facilities  of  the  libraries.  Very  soon,  however,  he 
is  asking  about  the  size  of  the  budget  and  the  sources  of 
income.  To  say  that  the  University  of  Michigan  has  a 
campus  of  two  hundred  and  sixty-one  acres  here  in  Ann 
Arbor,  and,  for  forestry,  engineering,  and  bilogical  pur- 
poses, owns  in  addition  forty-two  hundred  acres,  may 
suggest  the  magnitude  of  our  enterprise.  To  realize  that 
approximately  eleven  millions  of  dollars  are  invested  here 
in  buildings  and  equipment  is  informing.  To  state  rough- 
ly that  the  university  budget  reaches  almost  four 
millions  of  dollars  this  year  indicates  in  a  measure  the 
scope  of  our  activities. 

Very  soon,  however,  we  discover  that  our  vital  in- 
terest is  in  the  personnel.  We  are  conscious  of  the  enor- 
mous advantages  accruing  to  the  state,  the  students, 
and  the  University  from  the  fact  that  the  students  come 
from  every  state  of  the  Union  and  from  thirty  foreign 
countries.  A  national,  cosmopolitan  atmosphere  is  es- 
sential to  broad  culture  and  the  development  of  a  true 
sense  of  values.  No  greater  service  can  be  rendered  to 
Michigan  students  than  to  give  them  these  opportunities 
for  contacts  with  fellow  students  from  all  sections  of  the 
country  and  the  world.  To  make  the  state  of  Michigan 
known  intimately  to  groups  of  well-trained  leaders  in  all 
the  nations  must  inevitably  produce  immeasurable  bene- 
fits for  the  industries  and  commerce  of  the  state.  One  of 
the  elements  of  greatness  in  this  university  is  the  unique 
way  in  which  it  has  served  an  ever  increasing  world 


34  INAUGUFLU  SESSION 

constituency.  Moreover,  the  University  of  Michigan  en- 
joys the  reputation  of  possessing  one  of  the  largest 
groups  of  living  alumni  and  former  students,  numbering 
about  fifty  thousand  and  scattered  throughout  the 
world.  Our  deepest  interests,  however,  must  center  in 
the  teaching  and  investigating  staff.  To  be  told  that 
they  number  six  hundred  and  fifty  is  enlightening.  To 
remember  the  work  they  have  done,  to  appreciate  the 
contributions  they  have  made  to  learning,  and  to  recog- 
nize the  powerful  stimulus  that  they  have  been  to  all  that 
is  highest  and  best  in  our  civilization,  helps  us  to  realize 
why  Michigan  believes  in  higher  learning.  It  is  only 
necessary  to  add  that  just  as  the  state  is  an  integral  part 
of  the  nation,  so  too  this  university  occupies  a  dignified 
place  in  the  republic  of  letters.  The  casual  superficial 
observer  might  pause  here  and  say  that  these  facts  tell  us 
what  the  University  of  Michigan  is. 

If  our  visitor  were  to  remain  for  a  semester,  he  would 
doubtless  replace  these  facts  by  his  impressions  of  what 
really  goes  on  here.  He  would  begin  to  note  the  various 
forms  of  actual  work  in  which  men  and  women  are  en- 
gaged. At  first  he  would  be  impressed  with  the  teaching 
load  which  the  faculties  carry.  Ten  thousand  and  more 
students  attending  hundreds  of  different  courses  mean 
hard  work  for  the  teachers.  Then  he  would  begin  to  ob- 
serve the  very  worthy  and  commendable  emphasis  placed 
upon  investigation.  He  would  discover  here  that  if  a 
man  is  to  retain  the  real  respect  of  his  colleagues, he  must, 
occasionally  at  least,  give  some  tangible  evidence  of  his 
mastery  of  his  own  field.  Ultimately  he  would  come  to 
appreciate  why  the  problem  of  vital  research  lies  so  close 
to  the  heart  of  the  real  university  man.  He  would  under- 
stand why  such  sacrifices  are  made  in  the  name  of  learn- 
ing and  the  advancement  of  science.  He  would  conclude 
that  no  institution  can  lay  claim  to  being  a  university 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  35 

unless  it  is  making  contributions  to  the  world's  know- 
ledge. 

Morover,  our  visitor  would  gradually  recognize  that 
the  activities  of  the  University  are  not  limited  to  teach- 
ing and  investigation.  He  would  find  that  the  institution 
is  rendering  the  greatest  variety  of  service  to  the  public 
through  its  hospitals,  clinics,  laboratories,  museums,  and 
extension  service.  He  would  finally  sense  a  clear  deter- 
mination to  have  the  University  actually  meet  at  every 
point  the  demands  of  the  State.  He  would  recognize 
limitations  due  to  inadequate  equipment  and  funds,  but 
few  arising  from  failure  to  understand  our  primary 
obligations  to  Michigan. 

If  this  visitor  remained  for  a  year,  he  would  find  him- 
self going  deeper  and  deeper  into  university  life  and  sens- 
ing more  and  more  fully  the  marvelously  intricate  and 
complex  thing  which  thrives  upon  this  campus.  Sooner 
or  later  he  would  essay  a  mental  venture  to  which  there 
would  be  no  ending.  Especially  if  he  should  interrupt  his 
visit  at  the  University  by  a  trip  out  into  the  "real 
world,"  he  would  be  compelled  to  think  upon  this  sub- 
ject. He  would  discover  upon  the  campus  a  most  powerful 
and  enigmatic  influence.  He  will  never  be  able  to  fantom 
it.  It  never  congeals.  It  is  subtle,  irritating,  and  withal 
extremely  delightful.  It  has  occasioned  more  discussion, 
done  more  good,  and  wrought  more  harm  than  any  other 
single  influence.  It  is  the  '* academic  mind."  I  shall  at- 
tempt no  definition  of  it.  If  you  know  it  by  experience,  I 
can  not  add  to  your  knowledge.  If  you  do  not  know  it, 
you  are  to  be  congratulated  and  commiserated.  All  in 
all,  I  should  prefer  to  defend  rather  than  to  attack  the 
academic  mind.  I  should  not  want  to  be  the  president  of 
any  university  which  did  not  suffer  from  this  disease  in 
chronic  form.  It  makes  for  stability,  for  sound  weighing 
of  evidence,  for  scientific  scholarship,  for  the  absence  of 


36  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

sentimentalism,  and  for  a  frank  recognition  of  tlie  power 
of  the  mind. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  guilty  of  some  delightful  and 
confusing  results.  To  be  a  scholar,  a  man  must  put  the 
emphasis  on  his  own  special  field.  Difficulty  arises,  how- 
ever, when  this  emphasis  becomes  excessive,  when  there 
is  no  adequate  planning  of  curricula  and  when  little  if  any- 
thing is  done  to  help  the  student  really  understand  that 
knowledge  is  a  unity.  The  bewildered  student  apparent- 
ly is  never  able  to  re-unite  the  disjecta  membra  of  his 
thought  world  and  to  fashion  them  into  the  living  reality 
we  call  life.  It  is  because  of  these  results  that  the  aca- 
demic mind  is  berated.  It  inevitably  engenders  aloofness, 
occasions  the  lack  of  a  general  sense  of  humor,  and  min- 
imizes those  plain,  humble,  human  characteristics  that 
we  look  for  in  all  men. 

I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  we  must  charge  against 
the  academic  mind  much  of  the  dead  formalism  and 
mechanical  externality  of  Amercian  education.  I  should 
dislike  to  tell  here  all  that  I  think  of  the  various  systems 
of  admission  which  have  been  in  vogue  in  our  univer- 
sities. Surely  by  these  methods  we  have  not  intended  to 
find  real  college  material,  but  rather  to  encourage  the  ac- 
cumulation of  credits  which  will  serve  as  a  ticket  of  ad- 
mission. At  any  rate,  we  have  not  encouraged  intellec- 
tual interests,  nor  have  we  recognized  vital  facts  which 
do  not  appear  in  record  sheets.  Character,  purpose,  and 
spirit  are  more  important  than  the  skill  to  pass  examina- 
tions or  the  ability  to  secure  a  diploma. 

"When  the  student  is  once  in  the  university,  he  is  face 
to  face,  though  he  sees  through  a  glass  darkly,  with  the 
academic  mind.  The  atmosphere  of  the  average  class- 
room is  not  stimulating  and  inspiring.  Henry  Adams 
gave  an  accurate  portrayal  of  the  situation  when  he  said, 
referring  to  the  Harvard  student,  ''All  were  respect- 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  37 

able,  and  in  seven  years  of  contact,  Adams  never  had 
cause  to  complain  of  one;  but  nine  minds  in  ten  take 
polish  passively  like  a  hard  surface;  only  the  tenth 
sensibly  reacts. ' '  Doubtless  a  variety  of  causes  produces 
this  general  situation,  and  it  is  manifestly  unfair  to  at- 
tribute it  all  to  a  single  force.  But  we  cannot  deny  the 
fact  that  the  person  primarily  responsible  for  the  entire 
situation  is  a  frequent  victim  of  the  academic  mind. 

Surely  the  examination  system  now  employed  in 
American  universities  is  a  symptom  of  the  same  ailment. 
We  ask  the  student  to  pursue  a  variety  of  courses  and 
then  submit  to  a  series  of  examinations.  If  he  is  reason- 
ably successful,  he  piles  away  his  credits  like  so  much 
wood  that  he  has  sawed.  He  repeats  the  process  eight 
times  and  we  give  him  a  diploma.  If  we  have  been 
searching  for  a  method  of  killing  intellectual  curiosity 
and  a  genuine  spirit  of  inquiry,  we  have  been  diabolically 
successful.  If  our  aim  is  to  convince  the  student  that 
knowledge  comes  in  chunks,  that  if  it  starts  to  melt  or 
evaporate,  it  must  be  confined  in  water-tight  or  air-tight 
compartments,  and  that  knowledge  consists  of  separate 
fields  bearing  no  relationship  to  the  fascinating  reality  of 
life,  then  our  methods  justify  the  procedure.  If  to  be- 
come educated  is  to  center  one's  interest  on  acquiring 
enough  credits  to  receive  a  diploma,  then  we  have  suc- 
ceeded in  quantity  production  beyond  even  the  experts  of 
the  industrial  world.  If  education  is  completed  at  com- 
mencement, then  we  are  dealing  with  a  real  paradox, 
which  I  understand  to  be  something  that  is  apparently 
absurd  yet  true.  If  a  man  engages  in  study  for  the  purpose 
of  charging  his  mind  once  and  for  all,  and  if  on  com- 
mencement day  he  disconnects  intellectually  from  the 
source  of  power,  then  again  there  is  occasion  for  just 
pride.  It  is  not  strange  that  the  word  ''academic"  has 
come  to  stand,  not  for  broad  culture  and  vital  activity, 


38  IXAUGUPLU  SESSION 

but  for  a  general  aloofness  from  life  and  theoretical  de- 
tachment from  the  world  of  action.  Some  such  results  as 
these  may,  with  justice,  be  attributed  to  the  academic 
mind.  As  we  have  already  intimated,  there  is  much  that 
might  be  said  in  its  favor,  but  the  emphasis  is  doubtless 
where  we  have  endeavored  to  put  it. 

But  our  stranger  would,  if  he  remained  long  enough, 
endeavor  to  find  out  what  goes  on  inside  the  head  of  the 
average  undergraduate.  By  adopting  this  method  in  his 
effort  to  appraise  the  university  he  would  come  very  close 
to  the  actual  facts.  He  would  discover  that  the  student 
lives  in  his  own  world  of  reality.  And  it  is  a  very  fasci- 
nating and  challenging  world!  Instinctively  sensing  the 
unreality  of  the  academic  world,  the  student  promptly 
seeks  an  outlet  for  his  initiative  and  resourcefulness.  So 
he  organizes  his  student  activities  and  makes  them  his 
primary  interests.  He  never  questions  the  wisdom  of  this 
procedure.  If  you  desire  to  know  what  a  student  really 
wants  and  what  actually  commands  his  attention,  it  is 
necessary  only  to  watch  the  use  he  makes  of  his  leisure 
time.  College  supposedly  is  a  place  where  a  man  is  set 
free  from  the  usual  demands  of  life  in  order  that  he  may 
come  into  contact  with  the  rarest  spirits  of  all  time.  In 
reality,  it  is  four  years  of  leisure,  of  unhurried  association 
with  scholars.  It  is  a  time  when  a  man  finds  himself  and 
his  friends,  develops  his  sense  of  values  and  browses  a- 
mong  the  best  books  of  all  the  centuries.  If  this  suggests 
the  way  the  student  uses  his  leisure,  then  we  know  where 
he  finds  his  deepest  satisfaction  and  his  real  world! 
Frankly,  he  regards  his  university  work  as  secondary,  if 
not  tertiary,  and  finds  a  satisfying  outlet  for  his  energy 
and  genius  in  athletics,  dramatics,  journalism,  and  stu- 
dent government.  Perhaps  the  biggest  test  which  Ameri- 
can universities  will  ever  be  asked  to  meet  lies  just  in  this 
realm.    Is  there  anv  method  bv  which  a  student  world 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  39 

can  be  developed  in  which  the  scholar,  the  thinker,  and 
the  writer  will  be  just  as  highly  honored  as  the  man  who 
achieves  distinction  in  football  ?  It  will  be  noted  that  we 
have  not  ventured  to  hope  that  he  might  receive  even 
greater  plaudits.  Legitimate  sport  deserves  every  en- 
couragement. Youth  must  have  an  adequate  outlet  for 
its  abounding  energies.  Physical  education  is  essential 
to  the  public  health.  There  is  no  reason,  however,  why 
the  ostensible  work  of  the  university  should  be  relegated 
to  a  secondary  position.  Other  nations  have  succeeded  in 
placing  the  emphasis  properly.  The  Englishman  owes 
his  success  in  the  great  war  very  largely  to  his  genuine 
sense  of  sportsmanship.  Nevertheless  the  games  and 
races  at  the  English  universities  are  not  primary  nor  all- 
absorbing.  Intellectual  achievement  carries  off  the  first 
honors.  The  American  students'  world  of  reality  is  the 
inevitable  counterpart  of  the  ' '  academic ' '  mind. 

But  our  visitor  and  critic,  having  sensed  all  these 
things,  if  he  possesses  real  discrimination,  will  not  con- 
clude his  appraisal  at  this  point.  Beneath  all  these  ten- 
dencies he  will  detect  a  mighty  undertone  which  can 
never  be  entirely  silenced.  Through  the  rattle  and  clamor 
of  student  activities,  back  of  the  endless  ratiocinations  of 
academic  minds,  there  shine  the  abiding  realities  of  true 
university  ideals.  Here  men  know  the  freedom  of  the 
truth.  Ancient  tyrannies  may  still  oppress  the  multi- 
tudes. New  monarchs  may  arise  to  enslave  man.  Others 
may  enjoy  great  wealth.  The  university  man  possesses 
his  mind  and  soul  in  self-respect.  He  will  brook  no  inter- 
ference with  his  untrammeled  search  for  truth  in  all 
fields.  Regardless  of  the  consequences  to  preconceived 
notions,  prejudices  or  superstitions,  he  goes  calmly  on  his 
way,  patiently,  painstakingly  seeking  for  knowledge.  His 
joy  is  to  banish  ignorance.  His  only  fear  is  error;  his 
deepest  satisfaction  is  truth.    He  kneels  at  the  shrine  of 


40  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

truth.  If  one  desires  to  understand  the  depth  of  this 
spirit,  let  him  venture  to  rob  the  academic  man  of  his 
freedom.  Let  one  suggest  that  investigation  shall  be 
limited  and  the  professor  shall  be  muzzled  if  one  desires 
to  know  how  undying  is  his  devotion  to  science  and  how 
inviolate  are  his  ideals  of  freedom.  No,  the  university, 
with  all  of  its  shortcomings,  stands  as  the  impregnable 
citadel  of  truth.  It  can  never  be  shaken  without  irrep- 
arable injury  to  society.  In  this  era  of  industrial  tur- 
moil and  social  unrest,  when  mankind  must  cut  its  way 
through  the  twisted  materials  of  a  rudely  shaken  social 
order,  the  university,  with  its  open  and  free  search  of 
truth,  stands  as  the  bulwark  of  civilization.  The  pro- 
fessor may  not  constantly  aflSnn  this  solemn  reality,  but 
to  him  it  is  more  inviolate  than  life  itself. 

Consequently,  through  experience,  the  teacher  knows 
the  power  of  knowledge.  He  has  a  perfectly  amazing  con- 
fidence in  the  value  of  facts  and  the  worth  of  the  mind. 
He  proceeds  upon  the  Socratic  doctrine  that  knowledge  is 
virtue.  He  is  certain  that  his  mission  in  life  is  to  help 
youth  catch  some  glimpse  of  the  value  of  intellectual 
ability.  Just  now  his  convictions  are  buttressed  by  the 
war  experiences  of  millions  of  American  men.  They 
actually  discovered  in  the  war  that  mind  is  the  master  of 
mankind.  They  are  hungry  for  information.  They  are 
crowding  all  of  the  schools  of  the  nation,  because  they 
want  knowledge,  which  means  life.  To-day  as  never  before 
the  critic  who  studies  the  American  universities  will  find 
in  full  operation  these  potent  forces.  University  ideals 
are  the  sternest  facts  w^ith  which  states  and  civilizations 
finally  deal.  The  university  says  that  man  can  recog- 
nize no  master  but  the  truth  and  that  mind  is  a  mighty 
force  making  for  rich  and  abundant  life.  Ye  shall  know 
the  truth  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free. 

Our  stranger  and  critic,  if  his  stay  has  been  suf- 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  41 

ficiently  prolonged,  will  conclude  his  visit  in  a  genuinely- 
optimistic  mood.  Without  glossing  over  the  limitations 
of  the  university,  he  will  be  aware  of  its  elements  of 
strength,  charmed  by  its  enduring  ideals,  and  thrilled  by 
its  changing  status.  He  will  recognize  a  fine  new  spirit 
among  the  faculties.  For  large  numbers  of  these  men 
have  been  out  in  the  vital  world  of  action,  rendering  in- 
valuable war  service.  Two  results  have  followed.  The  pro- 
fessor has  learned  in  a  most  surprising  and  satisfying 
fashion  that  he  possesses  wares  which  command  large  re- 
turns in  the  open  market.  The  world  has  discovered  that 
the  professor's  training,  knowledge,  and  capacity  for  solv- 
ing new  problems  are  qualities  indispensible  to  the  nation. 
The  public  has  put  a  higher  mark  on  the  theoretical  pro- 
fessor. He  in  turn  has  resumed  his  university  relation- 
ships with  new  ideas,  broader  outlooks,  and  more  confi- 
dence in  the  eternal  truth  of  his  convictions.  These  facts, 
combined  with  the  lessons  our  boys  learned  in  the  army, 
have  given  our  country  an  almost  pathetic  confidence  in 
the  universities.  Consequently  men  of  affairs  every- 
where understand  that  these  institutions  of  higher  learn- 
ing must  be  reckoned  with.  There  was  a  time  when  the 
practical  man  of  the  world  and  the  successful  business 
man  silently  ignored  a  university.  That  day  is  gone  for 
our  generation,  if  not  forever.  On  the  one  hand,  we  find 
abounding  confidence  in  education,  and,  on  the  other,  a 
tendency  to  scrutinize  carefully,  if  not  to  criticize  sever- 
ly,  the  whole  system  of  public  instruction.  That  the 
status  of  the  university  has  been  changed  remarkably  by 
the  war  is  indisputable.  Its  position  was  never  so  secure, 
its  opportunities  never  so  challenging,  and  its  obligations 
never  so  heavy  as  at  this  very  hour. 

Here,  then,  is  the  university:  Possessing  equipment 
of  lands  and  buildings,  watched  over  by  men  of  great 
training  and  scholarship,  it  has  committed  to  its  care  the 


42  INAUGUIL\L  SESSION 

most  precious  assets  of  the  state — the  citizens  of  to- 
morrow. Afflicted  with  all  the  maladies  of  the  academic 
mind,  hypnotized  by  the  students'  world  of  reality, 
stabilized  by  the  ennobling  and  ancient  ideals  of  all  true 
universities,  it  finds  itself  suddenly  elevated  into  a  unique 
position  of  leadership  and  directly  sharing  responsibility 
for  the  standard  of  a  rapidly  changing  civilization. 

III. 

We  have  now  reached  the  point  where  we  can  ask 
ourselves,  specifically,  what  we  mean  when  we  say  that 
the  university  must  serve  the  state.  Xot  until  we  had  at- 
tempted some  statement  of  the  needs  of  the  state,  and 
had  ventured  upon  some  appraisal  of  the  university  as 
the  instrument  to  be  used,  could  we  with  any  clarity  or 
cogency  indicate  just  the  forms  of  service  which  we  are 
convinced  should  be  rendered. 

If  we  remind  ourselves  why  the  American  people  es- 
talSlished  the  public  school,  we  shall  understand  the  logic 
and  sanity  of  our  thesis  that  the  state  university  exists 
to  seTYe  the  state.  "We  may  with  advantage  go  back  into 
the  eighteenth  century  when  this  whole  region  was  a  part 
of  the  Northwest  Territory.  In  the  Ordinance  of  1787, 
with  great  foresight,  it  was  affirmed  that  "Eeligion, 
morality,  and  knowledge  being  necessary  to  good  govern- 
ment and  the  happiness  of  mankind,  schools  and  the 
means  of  education  shall  forever  be  encouraged."  Even 
a  superficial  study  of  the  history  of  Michigan  reveals 
from  the  very  beginning  a  firm  purpose  to  organize  a 
university.  Even  before  we  became  a  state,  provisions 
were  made  for  an  institution  of  higher  learning.  On 
August  26,  1817,  the  governor  and  judges  of  the  territory 
passed  an  act  looking  to  the  establishment  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan.  On  April  30,  1821,  this  act  was 
supercecled  by  provisions  for  a   corporate  body  to  be 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  43 

known  as  '  *  The  Trustees  of  the  University  of  Michigan. ' ' 
In  1837  the  State  Legislature  authorized  the  organiza- 
tion of  this  institution.  In  1838  the  Revised  Statutes  pro- 
vided for  the  establishment  of  the  University  and  stated 
its  purpose  in  the  following  terms:  *'The  object  of  the 
University  shall  be  to  provide  the  inhabitants  of  the  State 
with  the  means  of  acquiring  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
various  branches  of  literature,  science  and  the  arts." 
These  plans  of  the  State  of  Michigan  are  typical  of  the 
conviction  held  by  the  American  people  as  a  whole. 
Daniel  Webster  once  solemnly  avowed  that  '*0n  the  dif- 
fusion of  education  among  the  people  rests  the  preserva- 
tion and  perpetuation  of  our  free  institutions."  Speak- 
ing historically,  then,  we  may  say  that  Americans  have 
expected  their  schools  to  serve  the  state.  The  great  war 
has  made  this  truth  a  part  of  our  popular  convictions.  No 
arguments  upon  this  subject  are  needed  to-day.  We  now 
appreciate,  both  intellectually  and  emotionally,  the  fact 
that  the  future  of  our  American  democracy  depends  upon 
a  high  level  of  intelligence  among  all  the  people. 

I  therefore  venture  to  affirm  that  a  new  day  must 
dawn  in  American  higher  education.  All  of  us  have  been 
feeling  our  way  gradually  toward  this  conclusion.  Any- 
one who  has  been  close  to  the  people  during  the  years  of 
the  war  realizes  that  educators  are  expected  to  under- 
stand America  and  interpret  her.  I  am  convinced  that 
in  serving  the  state  we  must  aim  consciously  and  delib- 
erately to  assume  our  share  of  responsibility  for  the  new 
American  civilisation  which  inevitably  must  develop  in 
this  period  of  readjustment.  Our  universities  have  failed 
to  focus.  We  have  discussed  and  advocated  all  kinds  of 
educational  aims  but  none  has  gripped  the  imagination 
of  all  of  us  and  none  to-day  emerges  as  predominant  and 
comprehensive.  That  education  must  serve  the  state  is  a 
doctrine  that  has  been  proclaimed  many  times  and  in 


44  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

many  places.  The  years  of  the  war,  however,  have  burned 
it  into  our  souls.  Education  simply  must  serve  Ameri- 
ca. This  University  cannot  escape  from  its  primary 
responsibilities  to  the  people  as  a  whole.  Professor  Jay 
William  Hudson,  of  the  University  of  Missouri,  has  given 
us  recently  one  of  the  most  stimulating  formulations  of 
this  educational  aim.  In  his  book  entitled  "The  College 
and  New  America,"  he  defends  logically  and  with  real 
passion  this  thesis :  ' '  The  aim  of  American  education  is 
to  produce  a  definite  American  social  order,  in  relation  to 
a  definite  world  order."  I  believe  we  can  say  to  our- 
selves, to  our  students,  and  to  the  public  that  our  institu- 
tions of  higher  learning  exist  in  a  very  definite  and  com- 
pelling fashion  to  help  in  the  establishment  of  the  new 
American  civilization.  And  we  must  say  it,  not  only  at 
inaugural  exercises  and  annual  gatherings,  but  in  re- 
gents' meetings,  class  rooms,  public  assemblies  and  even 
in  faculty  meetings.  AYe  must  actually  do  the  thing 
rather  than  formulate  it  in  nebulous  and  vanishing 
flourishes  of  rhetoric. 

Precisely,  then,  what  does  this  aim  involve!  In  one 
sense  it  will  be  merely  the  rebirth  of  original  American 
intentions.  It  will  bring  us  back  to  the  principles  upon 
which  our  educational  system  was  established.  Trans- 
lated into  the  terms  of  our  day,  it  will  mean  that  this  ver- 
satile, complex,  growing,  pulsating  entity  which  we  call 
"America,"  must  be  welded  into  a  unified  whole.  It 
means  that  we  must  deliberately  attack  the  problem 
arising  out  of  our  lack  of  national  unity.  We  are  sprawl- 
ing and  amorphous.  The  latest  reports  upon  immigration 
show  that  the  state  of  Michigan,  next  to  California,  is  re- 
ceiving the  largest  numbers  of  new  immigrants.  Here  is 
a.  part  of  our  university  problem  if  we  are  consciously 
and  deliberately  aiming  to  assume  our  share  of  responsi- 
bilitv  for  the  new  American  order.    We  must  weld  all 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  45 

these  divergent  elements  into  a  coherent,  consistent,  har- 
monious whole.  The  entire  problem  of  Americanization 
confronts  us  at  this  point. 

To  share  in  this  gigantic  task  demands  unusual  in- 
sight and,  if  you  please,  philosophical  power.  Some  one 
must  ascertain  what  are  America's  flaming  desires  and 
intense  yearnings  and  direct  them  into  proper  channels. 
Some  one  must  drag  out  into  the  full  light  of  day  the 
most  serious  national  and  international  obligations  that 
rest  upon  the  people,  and  focus  public  attention  upon 
them.  American  thought  needs  clear  direction  to  its 
opportunities  in  establishing  the  standards  of  its  new 
day.  There  is  no  advantage  in  chiding  Americans  for 
their  crudities  and  vulgarities.  New  types  of  culture  are 
being  developed  in  this  forward-looking  nation.  She  is 
attached  to  to-morrow.  Our  function  is  to  select  the  per- 
manent values  and  idealize  them.  America  must  have  in- 
terpretation. If  we  may  judge  the  interests  and  spirit  of 
our  people  by  the  things  they  do  most,  we  must  begin  to 
understand  moving  pictures,  dancing,  motor  cars,  and 
machinery.  There  is  no  need  of  railing  against  these 
things.  Mighty  elements  of  truth  are  written  in  capital 
letters  all  over  these  factors  of  American  life.  The  '  *  aca- 
demic mind"  may  not  see  it,  but  the  college  professor  of 
to-day  discerns  it.  The  university  must  interpret  Ameri- 
can life.  Its  universal  tendencies  must  be  reckoned  with. 
It  is  possible  to  give  the  people  at  one  and  the  same  time 
what  they  want  and  what  they  ought  to  have.  To  accept 
literally  and  spiritually  this  aim  of  American  education, 
which  assumes  obligations  to  the  civilization  of  to- 
morrow, requires  the  most  human,  scientific,  philosophi- 
cal approach  to  the  whole  problem  of  culture  as  it  is  to 
be  solved  in  America.  John  Dewey  was  quite  right  when 
he  wrote  that  ''there  is  perhaps  no  better  definition  of 
culture  than  that  it  is  the  capacity  for  constantly  expand- 


46  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

ing  in  range  and  accuracy  one's  perception  of  mean- 
ings." The  university  must  expand  to  the  breaking 
point  the  range  of  its  understanding  of  American  life  as 
it  is  to-day.  The  usually  accepted  standards  of  accuracy 
applied  at  this  point  Yvould  produce  a  remarkable  for- 
ward movement.  America  must  have  unification,  direc- 
tion, interpretation.  Herein  lies  the  specified  duty  of  the 
university. 

But  what  will  such  leadership  require  1    Back  of  any 
successful  effort  in  this  field  there  must  be,  first  of  all,  a 
real  understanding,  or  if  you  prefer,  some  clear  defini- 
tion, of  America.    But  America  cannot  be  defined.    The 
only  permanent  thing  about  her  is  that  she  is  in  a  con- 
stant state  of  flux.    Even  so,  to-day  we  have  more  sources 
to  which  we  may  turn  with  confidence  than  ever  before. 
Information   is   actually   available.     Not    only    do    our 
histories,  our  constitutions,  state  and  national,  and  our 
oflScial  records  contain  first-hand  and  authoritative  state- 
ments, but  during  the  war  America  came  nearer  to  finding 
herself  than  ever  before.    Confronted  with  the  exigencies 
of  war,  we  knew  what  America  meant.     The  morale  of 
our  armies  was  based  upon  an  actual  appreciation  of 
American  ideals.     They  were  no  hazy,  unreal,  vague 
generalities.    They  were  incisive,  clear-cut,  and  compel- 
ing  facts.    They  were  the  personification  of  definiteness. 
They  were  gripping  enough  to  make  red-blooded,  clear- 
headed American  boys  willing  to  die  for  them.    We  know 
what  America  is  to-day  or  we  never  shall  know.    When 
we  set  up  our  **War  Aims  Course"  as  a  part  of  the  Stu- 
dents Army  Training  Corps,  no  one  seemed  to  fear  that 
we  had  nothing  to  say.    The  best  professors  in  all  sub- 
jects in  all  American  universities  knew  what  America 
stood  for  and  what  she  was.    It  is  for  America  now  in 
times  of  peace  that  we  must  assume  consciously  our  share 
of  responsibility. 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  47 

Now  some  one  will  say  that  is  a  curious  point  of  view. 
It  will  be  objected  that  we  defeated  Germany  just  because 
she  brought  up  a  generation  in  accordance  with  this  very 
theory.  Such  an  objection  is  born  of  the  failure  to  see 
that  America  and  Germany  were  grounded  in  totally 
different  philosophies  of  life.  There  is  no  conflict  be- 
tween whole-hearted  Americanism  and  a  proper  in- 
terpretation of  the  individual  and  mankind.  In  fact, 
America  is  established  upon  the  universal  and  eternal 
truth  that  every  person  is  of  supreme  worth.  The  citizen 
does  not  exist  for  the  state.  To  aim  at  the  enrichment  of 
the  new  American  order  is  to  seek  the  best  interests  of  all 
men  and  all  nations. 

If  the  university,  however,  is  to  render  this  service, 
it  will  require  something  more  than  a  definition  of 
America.  Certain  new  qualities  must  enter  into  our  very 
life  and  atmosphere.  The  detachment  and  aloofness  of 
the  ''academic  mind"  must  give  away  to  a  new  sym- 
pathy with  all  groups.  More  imagination  is  needed.  We 
must  have  faith  in  American  deeds,  American  spirit,  and 
American  hopes.  A  new  type  of  morale  must  arise. 
Without  sacrificing  our  scholarly  aims  or  our  cautious 
intellectualism,  we  must  rise  to  meet  America  to-day  as 
we  did  in  the  days  of  the  war.  We  did  not  lose  our  self- 
respect  then.  In  fact  many  of  us  found  life  infinitely  more 
worth  while.  In  reality  our  quality  of  sportsmanship 
must  be  called  into  full  action.  We  must  be  able  to  see 
the  future  through  all  of  the  disconcerting  and  even  dis- 
gusting tricks  of  the  American  game  as  played  to-day. 
George  A.  Gordon  caught  the  right  vision  when  he  said, 
''Out  of  this  composite  land— this  nation  gathered  from 
every  people  under  heaven,  rags  and  tatters  and  dirt  and 
all— I  believe  that  the  Eternal  Spirit  will  evolve  and  es- 
tablish the  most  gifted,  the  most  far-shining  and  the 
mightiest  people  in  the  world. ' ' 


48  INAUGUR.\L  SESSION 

Xow  with  this  as  the  aim  of  our  service  to  be  ren- 
dered to  the  state,  let  us  ask  precisely  what  concrete 
things  should  be  done,  what  changes  are  necessary,  and 
just  what  methods  must  be  adopted.  Purely  by  way  of 
illustration  and  with  no  thought  of  offering  either  a  com- 
plete or  an  adequate  program,  I  suggest  four  things: 

1.  The  work  and  teaching  of  the  university  should 
be  unified  with  our  primary  aim  in  full  view.  If  we  are  to 
serve  the  American  order  and  to  keep  this  purpose  con- 
sciously before  us,  it  will  give  point  to  all  of  our  instruc- 
tion. It  will  help,  if  not  compel,  the  university  to  focus. 
Specifically  it  will  demand  that  some  effort  shall  be  made 
to  correlate  the  courses  offered.  In  some  way  the  student 
will  be  given  such  guidance  that  he  will  see  the  relation- 
ship of  his  courses  to  one  another,  to  knowledge  as  a 
whole,  and  to  life  in  its  most  practical  relationships. 
Quietly  but  inevitably  he  will  begin  to  have  convictions. 
He  will  see,  if  he  is  a  self-respecting  man,  that  he  must 
begin  to  live  for  America  just  as  his  colleagues  died  for 
her.  It  will  awaken  him  to  new  responsibilities.  He  will 
see  that  this  is  a  real  place,  vitally  connected  with  the 
mightiest  proposal  the  world  has  ever  known.  He  will 
instinctively  understand  that  democracy,  just  as  much 
as  military  life,  requires  backbone.  He  will  develop 
moral  fibre.  He  will  banish  slouchiness  of  every  form. 
Laziness,  mediocrity,  and  smattering  will  give  way  to 
work,  quality,  and  a  thorough  mastery  of  a  few  vital 
things.  Such  results  are  just  as  possible  as  the  present 
realities  of  student  life.  In  fact,  to  the  college  man  of 
this  generation  they  are  more  nearly  possible. 

2.  The  curricula  of  our  various  schools  and  colleges 
within  the  university  must  be  definitely  directed  toward 
community  needs.  In  fact,  this  tendency  is  already  in  full 
tide.  The  College  of  Literature,  Science  and  the  Arts  is  ac- 
ceptmg  its  obligations  to  society.     It  recognizes  that  it 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  49 

must  serve  the  state  through  the  professional  training  of 
the  high  school  teacher.  Upon  this  campus  are  those 
subject-matter  departments  which,  properly  correlated 
with  professional  training  courses,  can  render  an  in- 
estimable service  to  Michigan  life  and  meet  a  long  de- 
ferred and  earnest  desire  of  the  schoolmen  of  the  state. 
A  similar  tendency  is  manifested  in  the  courses  in  busi- 
ness administration.  The  College  of  Engineering  is  a- 
ware  of  the  necessity  of  broadening  and  liberalizing  its 
training.  It  has  seen  that  more  emphasis  must  be  placed 
upon  problems  of  management,  upon  the  economic  side 
of  production,  and  upon  all  those  phases  of  engineering 
which  make  for  community  improvement.  The  present 
emphasis  upon  highway  construction  and  transporta- 
tion is  a  very  pertinent  example.  The  School  of  Law 
recognizes  its  obligations  in  adjusting  the  law  to  the 
changing  social  order.  Eeal  leadership  in  this  highly  im- 
portant field  simply  must  emerge  from  our  law  schools. 
Our  schools  of  medicine  have  long  since  shifted  the 
emphasis  to  preventive  medicine.  They  see  the  vital  im- 
portance of  public  health  service  and  more  and  more  are 
thinking  in  terms  of  group  and  community  medicine. 
Dentistry  is  no  longer  concerned  chiefly  about  the  train- 
ing of  the  ''tooth  carpenter"  but  sees  its  responsibilities 
to  the  general  health  of  the  individual  and  its  bearings 
upon  public  hygiene.  These  statements  represent  mar- 
velous shif tings  of  emphasis.  They  indicate  clearly  that 
by  giving  this  direction  to  our  various  curricula  we  are 
attempting  to  assume  our  responsibilities  to  American 
life. 

3.  The  university  must  utilize  definitely  its  equip- 
ment and  personnel  for  research  work  in  solving  the 
problems  of  the  state.  In  fact,  the  university  should  be 
the  research  center  of  the  state.  Questions  of  all  kinds 
and  descriptions  immediately  related  to  the  welfare  of 


50  INAUGUR.U  SESSION 

the  people  must  be  answered.  The  actual  organization 
here  of  an  Industrial  Research  Laboratory  in  coopera- 
tion with  the  Michigan  Manufacturers '  Association  is  an 
illustration  of  the  application  of  this  principle.  All  re- 
sults of  research  work  will  be  published.  By  these  plans 
the  university  relates  itself  directly  to  the  industrial 
welfare  of  the  state  without  in  any  sense  violating  its 
obligation  to  any  group. 

Just  so  in  every  realm,  the  university  should  serve 
the  people.  With  every  problem  of  government,  eco- 
nomics, sociology,  art,  and  education,  the  university 
should  concern  itself.  In  a  word,  it  should  become  the 
thinking,  investigating,  philosophizing  center  of  the 
commonwealth. 

There  is  no  need  to  interpose  here  that  this  violates 
the  cardinal  principle  of  learning  for  learning 's  sake.  Re- 
search activities  of  the  kind  described  will  only  stimulate 
investigation  of  every  type.  We  must  never  lose  sight  of 
the  fact  that  the  quality  of  civilization  waits  upon  dis- 
covery, invention  and  research.  A  true  university  as  dis- 
tinguished from  a  college,  must  function  mightily  in  this 
respect  or  it  fails  utterly.  To  aim  at  genuine  service  to  the 
people  through  the  solution  of  all  types  of  problems  can 
only  give  vitality  and  power  to  our  graduate  work. 

4.  Finally,  the  university  must  permeate  the  state 
with  knowledge.  The  people  of  to-day  as  never  before 
understand  the  power  which  accrues  to  any  one  who  has 
the  facts  and  proper  training.  The  people  are  literally 
hungry  for  knowledge.  The  British  Labor  Party  showed 
statesmanship  when  it  affirmed  that  we  must  aim  to 
''bring  effectively  within  the  reach  not  only  of  every  boy 
and  girl,  but  also  of  every  adult  citizen,  all  the  training, 
physical,  mental,  and  moral,  literary,  technical,  and 
scientific,  of  which  he  is  capable."  Such  an  ideal  is 
democracy  applied  to  education.    For  the  university  it 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  51 

takes  the  form  of  extension  service.    Such  a  division  re- 
quires very  little  in  the  way  of  its  own  teaching  staff.    In 
fact,  its  instructional  work  should  be  done  by  those  who 
are  regular  members  of  the  university  faculties.    Know- 
ledge is  one.    We  cannot  tolerate  one  type  for  the  campus 
and  another  for  the  state.    The  mutual  benefits  are  not  to 
be  ignored.     To  become  a  successful  extension  teacher 
would  vitalize  a  man's  campus  instruction.    This  univer- 
sity must  come  into  closer  contact  with  all  of  the  schools 
of  the  state.  They  are  making  the  citizens  of  to-morrow. 
We  must  be  of  vital  service  in  recruiting  the  teaching 
profession.  Groups  of  progressive  business  men  through- 
out the  state  need  and  desire  various  business  courses. 
We  should  attempt  the  training  of  social  service  workers, 
including  field  work  and  cooperation  with  the  various 
departments  of  county,  municipal,  and  state  governments. 
There  are  limitless  possibilities  of  wise  and  valuable  co- 
operation with  all  kinds  of  private  enterprise.    Our  Ex- 
tension Division  has  done  and  is  doing  much.    It  deserves 
high  approbation.    It  now  needs  adequate  support  and 
recognition.    These  aims  may  call  for  a  clearer  demarca- 
tion between  university  work  and  the  duties  of  executive 
departments  of  our  government.    They  may  even  suggest 
the  necessity  of  new  units  in  our  educational  system. 
But  in  the  meantime,  if  we  consciously  aim  to  assume  our 
share  of  the  responsibility  for  the  new  America,  we  must 
remember  that  knowledge  is  the  property  of  every  man. 
In  a  word,  we  pretend  to  believe  that  men  must  be  free. 
They  are  free  only  when  they  know  how  to  live  wisely 
and  understand  how  to  govern  themselves  justly  and  ef- 
ficiently.   In  our  appraisal  of  America  we  said  that  her 
greatest  tyrant  was  ignorance.    Now,  if  we  are  to  serve 
her,  we  must  give  her  knowledge. 

Here,  then,  are  four  suggestive  possibilities  of  the 
specific  type  of  service  which  the  University  of  Michigan 


52  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

can  and  must  render  to  the  state  if  it  is  to  be  worthy  of 

its  history,  its  opportunities,  and  its  ideals. 

CONCLUSION. 

I  am  quite  aware  that  the  main  proposals  of  this 
address  have  far-reaching  ramifications.  I  am  equally 
aware  that  I  have  left  many  questions  untouched  and 
some  of  our  most  serious  problems  unsolved.  A  man  can 
not  remake  the  universe  or  even  the  educational  world 
with  words  in  a  short  half  hour.  A  wise  administrator 
must  often  use  an  inaugural  address  to  conceal  not  to  re- 
veal all  of  his  educational  fads,  frills,  and  fancies !  I  ap- 
preciate the  fact  that  some  things  at  which  I  have  hinted 
to-day,  if  carried  out,  would  involve  radical  changes  in 
our  educational  system.  The  necessity  of  economy  of 
time  in  education  is  very  pressing.  Two  or  three  years 
for  every  one  of  our  millions  of  youth  might  be  saved. 
The  startling  problem  of  growth  may  call  for  new  units 
in  our  educational  machinery.  Junior  colleges  may  make 
a  temporary  reduction  of  enrollment  in  the  first  two 
years,  but  they  will  only  accentuate  the  problem  in  its 
ultimate  form.  Cooperation  with  all  kinds  of  enterprises 
may  assist  materially  in  reducing  the  expenses  of  educa- 
tion and  contribute  mightly  to  the  more  thorough  unifica- 
tion of  the  state. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  quite  useless  to  observe  as  usual 
that  we  must  acquire  a  new  sense  of  individual  responsi- 
bility, unless  we  actually  point  our  finger  at  the  in- 
dividual. With  considerable  audacity  and  abandon  I  de- 
sire to  express  the  belief  that  the  professor  is  the  man 
who  can  turn  this  trick.  He  is  at  the  center  of  the  stage. 
Sometimes  we  maintain  the  illusion  that  regents,  presi- 
dents, deans,  alumni,  or  students  are  primarily  to  blame 
for  existing  conditions.  If  we  forget  the  question  of 
praise  and  blame,  and  face  the  future  with  its  luring 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  53 

possibilities,  we  must  crown  the  teaching  professor  to- 
day. As  one  of  his  own  group,  Professor  Hudson  has 
wisely  said,  "Our  ultimate  hope  is  in  the  college  pro- 
fessor himself. ' '  Referring  to  necessary  changes  in  edu- 
cation, he  affirms  that  "no  such  reform  is  likely  to  be  per- 
manently effective,  unless  it  emerges  directly  from  the 
aggressive  convictions  of  the  college  professor  himself." 
Here,  then,  is  our  message  to-day.  The  function  of 
the  state  university  is  to  serve  the  state,  and,  through  the 
state,  to  serve  America  and  the  world.  I  like  to  re-read 
Henry  Van  Dyke's  poem  entitled  "Home  Thoughts  from 
Europe. ' '  When  he  wrote  it  he  had  a  proper  perspective 
of  America.  With  all  his  appreciation  of  Europe  he  could 
not  smother  his  native  American  instinct,  and  so  he  ex- 
claimed, 

"But  the  glory  of  the  present,  is  to  make  the  future  free; 
We  love  our  land  for  what  she  is  and  what  she  is  to  be." 


THE  FUNCTIONS  OF  THE  GOVERNING  BOARD  IN 
THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  A  UNR^ERSITY 

WILLIAM  L.  ABBOTT,  M.E. 

Trustee,  University  of  Illinois 


College  professors  have  written  much  concerning  the 
functions  of  trustees  in  university  administration;  the 
more  they  have  written  the  more  those  functions  have 
shrunk,  the  trustee  having  been  ignored  in  the  discussion 
until  now,  as  his  duties  approach  the  vanishing  point,  I 
am  asked  to  embalm  myself  into  the  record,  presumably 
as  a  museum  specimen  of  a  species  that  is  fast  becoming 
atrophied,  and,  although  I  may  miss  the  point  of  the  dis- 
cussion, I  shall  at  least  speak  my  mind. 

The  constructive  potentiality  of  a  people  is  indicated 
by  its  enteiprise  and  by  its  ability  to  organize  so  as  to 
function  as  a  unit  for  the  accomplishment  of  any  desired 
purpose.  Long  human  experience  in  such  matters  has 
shown  that  certain  forms  of  organization  tend  to  ef- 
ficiency and  other  forms  to  inefiBciency,  one  of  the  lessons 
taught  being  that  when  a  large  number  of  people  desire 
to  establish  and  carry  on  an  enterprise  it  can  best  be  done 
by  creating  a  body  or  corporation  for  that  purpose  and 
placing  its  management  in  the  hands  of  a  selected  few, 
giving  this  smaller  body  general  instructions  as  to  the 
object  to  be  accomplished,  full  authority  to  represent  the 
larger,  and  charging  it  with  complete  responsibility  for 
the  organization  and  conduct  of  the  undertaking.  Not 
that  the  members  of  this  smaller  number,  whom  we  will 
call  the  governing  board,  are  the  most  experienced  in  the 
particular  undertaking  to  which  they  are  assigned,  but 
that  thev  have  the  interest  of  the  venture  at  heart  and 


GOVERNING  BOARDS  55 

have  the  good  sense  to  select  experts  to  administer  the 
enterprise  and,  in  general,  to  keep  it  functioning  along  the 
lines  which  its  founders  intended  it  should  go. 

The  scheme  of  organization  and  method  of  operation 
which  in  business  organizations  has  been  found  to  be  best 
adapted  to  the  human  temperament  for  that  purpose  has 
also  been  found  to  be  the  best  scheme  of  organization  and 
method  of  operation  for  universities,  in  which  the  tem- 
peramental feature  is  greatly  accentuated  and  the  dan- 
ger from  amateur  meddling  is  correspondingly  increased. 

The  members  of  such  university  boards  are  seldom 
experienced  educators  or  experienced  managers  of  educa- 
tors or  of  students,  and  from  the  way  they  are  selected  it 
is  unlikely  that  as  a  body  they  are  specialists  in  any  line 
related  to  university  administration  or  that  they  will  be- 
come such  during  their  term  of  office;  but  with  the  wis- 
dom which  they  are  supposed  to  have  and  generally  do 
have,  they  recognize  their  limitations  and  act  cautiously 
through  experienced  agents  and  upon  advice. 

Over-candid  friends  from  the  university  will  freely 
point  out  the  shortcomings  of  trustees,  not  only  in 
matters  of  financing  but  in  matters  of  every-day  operat- 
ing and  of  educational  policy.  The  campus  development 
plan  is  visionary  or  shortsighted,  perhaps  both;  the  edu- 
cational aims  are  too  narrow  or  scattered  too  much,  do 
not  give  the  student  a  broad  foundation,  do  not  equip  him 
to  take  a  good  paying  job  upon  graduation;  the  univer- 
sity should  have  a  course  in  law  or  medicine,  because 
it  would  bring  students  or  bring  money,  or  should  cut 
out  such  courses  because  they  w^ill  never  amount  to  any- 
thing here.  In  the  selection  of  a  faculty  why  don't  they 
drop  Prof.  So  and  So?  No  one  likes  him.  Or  why  don't 
they  get  Prof.  So  and  So  from  Michigan?  He  is  just  the 
man  to  make  this  or  that  department  go. 


56  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

I  always  suspected  that  university  management  was 
not  perfect,  but  it  was  not  until  I  had  the  free  will  offer- 
ing of  the  criticism  of  five  sons  and  daughters,  students  in 
the  university  during  my  term  as  trustee,  that  I  realized 
how  singularly  incompetent  its  administration  could  be. 

In  recommending  a  candidate  for  the  office  of  univer- 
sity trustee,  it  is  often  urged  that  he  is  an  educator.  This 
is  one  job  Avhere,  to  my  mind,  a  little  learning  is  a  danger- 
ous thing  and  more  learning  would  be  worse.  The  trus- 
tees, by  the  nature  of  their  positions,  are  no  more  compe- 
tent to  formulate  the  teaching  policy  of  a  university  than 
they  are  to  do  the  teaching;  no  more  than  the  board  of 
directors  of  a  manufacturing  company  is  competent  to 
plan  the  tooling  and  methods  of  machining  for  the  work 
that  goes  through  their  shop.  Individually,  they  may 
have  ideas  of  greater  or  less  merit,  but  as  a  board  they 
are  incompetent  if  they  devote  their  own  time  and  ideas 
to  a  task  that  can  be  better  and  more  cheaply  done  by 
hired  experts.  Nevertheless,  a  board  that  would  abdi- 
cate its  authority  to  any  shop  committee,  expert,  super- 
intendent or  president  would  be  inviting  disaster. 

The  board  has  certain  fundamental  duties,  among 
which  are: 

Eaising  of  funds; 

Educational  aims; 

Plan  for  development  of  plant; 

Selection  of  president  and  teaching  faculty; 

Operation. 

In  the  above  tabulation  I  have  placed  financing  first, 
on  the  theory  that  any  one  can  run  a  university,  if  some- 
body will  furnish  the  necessary  money,  and  I  have  no 
doubt  that  everybody  will  concede  that  function  to  the 
trustees. 

In  some  families  there  may  be  a  difference  in  opinion 


GOVERNING  BOARDS  57 

as  to  the  extent  of  the  father's  authority  and  in  what 
capacities  he  could  best  serve  the  household,  but  however 
much  he  must  exert  himself  to  maintain  his  prestige  in 
other  respects,  he  is  never  asked  to  abdicate  as  purveyor 
to  the  domestic  exchequer. 

Trustees  having  business  affairs  of  their  own, 
which  occupy  their  attention  to  such  an  extent  that 
they  have  little  time  to  become  acquainted  with  the  uni- 
versity's requirements,  have  need  for  expert  advice  on  all 
of  the  board's  major  functions.  They  need  more  than 
that;  they  need  a  trusted  agent  to  advise  them  where  they 
can  get  this  advice  and  to  coordinate  and  condense  the  in- 
formation obtained,  so  that  it  can  be  presented  in  form  to 
be  readily  comprehended  and  its  various  features  shown 
in  their  relative  importance  and  significance.  This  agent 
is  the  board's  ''man  Friday,"  the  man  on  the  job — the 
president.  The  board  will  consult  with  architects,  en- 
gineers, accountants,  financiers,  superintendents  and 
faculty,  but  most  of  all  it  will  depend  upon  the  president 
who  should  be  sufficiently  in  touch  with  every  feature  of 
university  requirement  and  university  life  to  anticipate 
the  university's  needs  and  bring  them  to  the  board  for 
its  consideration  and  his  own  guidance. 

The  president  may  or  may  not  make  a  success  of  the 
enterprise.  If  he  does,  well  and  good ;  the  trustees  in  such 
cases  would  rarely  disturb  him.  If  he  does  not  make  a 
success,  he  will  soon  be  required  to  make  way  for  some 
other  prospect.  But  whether  he  be  successful  or  not,  the 
trustees,  if  they  are  wise,  will  not,  except  in  the  greatest 
emergency,  disturb  the  authority  of  their  president  by 
short-circuiting  him  and  dealing  directly  with  the  mem- 
bers of  his  organization. 

It  has  been  said  that  an  executive  is  a  man  who 
makes  decisions  quickly — sometimes  rightly.  A  univer- 
sity president  must  make  so  many  decisions  in  a  day  that 


58  IXAUGUPL\L  SESSION 

it  would  be  a  wonder  if  all  were  right,  but  when  it  de- 
velops that  a  wrong  decision  has  been  made  there  are 
usually  people  unkind  enough  to  represent  that  the  presi- 
dent should  have  been  one  hundred  per  cent  perfect. 

Take  the  case  of  the  best  league  batter  in  the  coun- 
try; his  average  is  arouug  300  per  cent  as  it  is  reckoned, 
but  see  what  a  princely  salary  he  draws.  If  our  univer- 
sity presidents  were  paid  according  to  their  batting  aver- 
ages, we  would  need  materially  to  reduce  some  other  ex- 
penses. 

There  is  an  inclination  from  without  to  ridicule 
boards  for  deferring  so  much  to  their  agents  and  nearly 
always  accepting  their  advice,  as  though  the  board  were 
belittling  itself  by  acknowledging  that  it  hired  a  man  for 
a  special  purpose,  who  knows  more  about  his  job  than  the 
board  does.  There  is  also  an  inclination  from  within  to 
meddle  with  the  president 's  job  when  it  does  not  seem  to 
be  going  smoothly,  and  sometimes  when  it  is,  to  mix  into 
any  quarrel  or  operation  that  appears  interesting. 

Suppose  a  company  interested  in  the  transportation 
of  freight  should  buy  for  the  purpose  a  freighter's  wagon 
and  a  team  of  high-strung  horses  to  pull  it— a  ''20-mule 
team"  of  horses,  I  was  going  to  say.  We  will  grant  that 
the  individuals  of  the  team  have  horse  sense,  but  even 
with  that,  they  need  horse  sense  in  management.  Sup- 
pose that  to  drive  this  team  they  should  hire  a  freighter 
of  experience,  determination  and  proved  skill.  When  all 
is  ready  the  directors,  to  make  sure  that  the  transport- 
ing is  properly  done,  would  climb  onto  the  load,  the  driver 
would  mount  to  his  seat,  crack  his  whip,  and  they  would 

be  off. 

For  a  few  hours  the  directors  would  admire  the 
driver's  skill, and  by  that  time, seeing  how  simple  a  thing 
driving  is,  they  would  be  able  to  offer  occasional  sugges- 
tions to  the  driver,  and  when  the  outfit  struck  a  piece  of 


GOVERNING  BOARDS  59 

rough  road  on  an  up  grade  or  a  down  grade,  where  the 
driver's  strength,  skill  and  attention  are  taxed  in  the 
management  of  his  team,  what  a  blessing  it  would  be  to 
have  some  members  of  the  party  appoint  themselves 
critics  and  advisers  extraordinary  to  him,  and  in  addition 
to  their  valuable  suggestions  endeavor  to  take  from  his 
hands  during  the  emergency  the  control  of  the  lines,  whip 
or  brake.  The  driver's  thanks  in  such  a  contingency 
would  doubtless  be  expressed  in  language  characteristic 
of  a  sentimental  freighter.  And  suppose  that  at  the  end 
of  the  day's  pull,  some  should  go  among  the  horses  ex- 
pressing sympathy  at  the  way  the  whip  was  cracked  and 
the  rein  drawn  over  their  backs  in  special  cases,  or  say 
to  Bill  or  Jack  that  he  deserves  to  be  a  leader  or  a  wheel 
horse  instead  of  occupying  an  inconspicuous  place  in  the 
middle  of  the  string;  would  see  what  could  be  done  to  get 
him  better  recognition  or  at  least  an  increased  allowance 
of  oats.  A  freighting  company  so  managed  would  travel 
rough  roads,  even  though  Bill  and  Jack  do  have  good 
sense. 

"With  the  freighting  company  there  are  many  features 
of  the  general  conduct  of  the  business  which  the  board 
alone  can  decide,  and  the  selection  of  a  competent  driver 
is  one  of  them.  If  it  finds  that  the  one  first  selected  is  not 
reasonably  satisfactory,  it  should  try  another;  but  the 
company  will  find  it  far  safer  to  let  the  driver,  whoever 
he  may  be,  do  the  driving  for  the  time  being  than  have 
the  members  of  the  board,  collectively  or  upon  individual 
impulse,  disturb  him  in  his  work.  Likewise,  a  uni- 
versity board  of  trustees  should  select  a  competent  man 
for  president,  and  if  it  should  develop  that  he  is  not 
competent,  select  some  one  else  for  the  position;  but  if  he 
is  competent,  so  tell  the  world,  faculty  included. 

Having  selected  for  its  president  a  person  preferably 
with  broad  shoulders  and  a  back  strong  enough  to  carry 


60  IXAUGUR.\L  SESSION 

a  great  load,  the  board  will  do  well  to  rely  upon  him  for 
the  double  office  of  adviser  and  operating  superintendent, 
who  will  assume  the  initiative  in  bringing  up  matters 
that  need  attention,  presenting  therewith  essential  facts 
in  proper  weight.  The  board  often  receives  information 
and  advice  from  other  sources,  faculty  included,  but  to 
conserve  its  own  time  and  to  impel  respect  for  the  presi- 
dent's office,  arrangements  for  such  outside  assistance 
should  generally  be  requested  of  the  president. 

Industries  are  coming  to  recognize  that  participa- 
tion by  the  lower  members  of  their  organizations  in  con- 
ferences where  operating  methods  and  policies  are  dis- 
cussed tends  to  create  a  wholesome  and  loyal  interest  in 
the  affairs  of  the  industry  on  the  part  of  the  employe, 
and  at  the  same  time  discloses  a  wealth  of  wisdom  con- 
cerning operating  problems  whose  existence  until  recent- 
ly was  generally  unsuspected  or  ignored.  AVhen  arrange- 
ment is  made  to  give  standing  and  recognition  to  this 
element,  not  only  do  the  employes  become  more  contented 
and  efficient,  but  the  administration  is  aided  by  friendly 
counsel  from  those  who  are  in  most  intimate  contact  with 
its  affairs.  So  long  as  this  participation  by  employes  in 
the  company's  councils  is  in  an  advisory  capacity  only, 
the  results  have  been  mutually  beneficial,  but  it  is  yet  to 
be  shown  that  placing  final  authority  in  the  hands  of 
those  upon  whom  the  burden  of  responsibility  does  not 
rest  is  for  the  ultimate  benefit  of  the  enterprise. 

As  the  board  must  depend  upon  its  president  for  the 
general  management  of  the  university,  and  upon  him 
places  certain  responsibilities,  so  the  president  must  de- 
pend upon  his  faculty  for  advice  and  guidance,  and 
in  the  ability  of  the  president  so  to  enthuse  and  lead  his 
faculty  that  they  will  heartily  cooperate  and  put  forth 
their  best  efforts  to  plan  and  advise,  lies  his  hope  for  best 
advising  and  influencing  his  board.    The  board  that  is 


GOVERNING  BOARDS  61 

not  guided  largely  by  its  president  and  the  president  who 
is  not  guided  largely  by  his  faculty  show  little  confidence 
in  their  ability  to  select  advisers. 

The  test  of  an  executive  is  his  ability  to  get  agents  to 
do  his  work.  The  board,  realizing  its  limitations  as  to 
time  and  special  qualification,  will  delegate  to  others 
nearly  all  except  its  legislative  duties;  but  however  com- 
petent such  agencies  may  be  and  however  much  they 
desire  to  retain  such  authority  and  exercise  it  in  their 
own  right,  it  is  impractical  to  award  to  such  agencies  as 
president  or  faculty,  whom  the  board  employs  and  dis- 
misses at  will,  concurrent  authority  with  the  board, 
which  by  organic  law  alone  bears  the  responsibility. 

I  am  a  believer  in  the  wisdom  of  distributing  the 
privilege  of  counsel  and  the  burden  of  administration 
down  from  the  board  to  the  lowest  member  of  the  organi- 
zation, but  in  all  this  the  responsibility  and  likewise  the 
authority  of  the  board  should  remain  absolute,  both  as  to 
initiative  and  as  to  veto. 

Some,  in  their  enthusiasm  for  an  extension  of  ad- 
ministrative authority  and  prerogative  to  the  faculty, 
may  favor  going  so  far  as  to  place  final  authority  in  the 
hands  of  subordinates  who  have  not  final  responsibility, 
and  while  this  policy  might  work  well  in  some  instances, 
it  is  fundamentally  as  faulty  as  would  be  the  policy  of 
allowing  a  locomotive  fireman  to  share  with  his  engineer 
concurrent  authority  in  piloting  an  express  train. 


THE  FUXCTIOXS  OF  THE  FACULTY  IX  THE  AD- 
MIXISTEATIOX  OF  A  UXIVERSITY. 


JOSEPH   A.    LEIGHTON,   PH.D.,    EI..D. 

Ohio  State  University 


Xaturally,  it  is  with  some  trepidation  that  a  mere  pro- 
fessor finds  himself  obliged  to  speak  for  his  colleagues  in 
this  den  of  presidential  lions.  My  trepidation  is  increased 
by  the  fearful  suspicion  that  I  must,  of  course,  have  an 
academic  mind.  It  is  still  further  increased  by  the  uneasy 
consciousness  that  I  may  at  any  moment  hear  the  crack  of 
of  the  mule  driver's  whip  behind  me,  since  we  have  just 
heard  that  it  is  a  presidential  function  to  drive  his  twenty- 
mule  team,  the  faculty.  Perhaps  it  is  lucky  for  me  that 
my  president  is  not  here. 

In  entering  upon  a  thirty-minute  discussion  of  this 
complex  and  controversial  subject,  I  feel  pretty  much  in 
the  state  of  mind  of  the  late  Doctor  McCosh  when  entering 
upon  his  discussion  of  the  Problem  of  Being.  ''Young 
gentlemen,"  he  is  quoted  as  saying,  "this  is  a  verra  deef- 
ficult  problem.  Plato  tried  to  solve  it  and  failed,  Aristotle 
tried  it  and  failed,"  and,  after  enumerating  all  of  the 
famous  philosophers  who  had  failed  to  solve  the  problem 
of  being.  Doctor  McCosh  concluded,  ''and  I  am  no  verra 
sure  that  I  can  solve  it  me  self . ' ' 

AVith  respect  to  the  subject  of  my  address,  I  seem  to 
see  the  goal  in  view,  but  I  am  not  very  certain  as  to  the 
best  means  of  reaching  it.  I  shall  have,  perforce,  to  speak 
briefly  and,  therefore,  dogmatically.  What  I  would  plead 
for,  above  all  else,  in  view  of  the  complexity  of  the  prob- 
lem and  the  great  issues  at  stake,  is  openness  of  mind, 


FACULTIES  63 

frankness  of  discussion,  and  willingness  to  experiment,  on 
the  part  of  boards,  presidents,  and  faculties. 

To  enter  immediately  into  the  heart  of  the  subject,  I 
beg  to  call  attention,  first,  to  the  fact  that  the  functions 
actually  exercised  by  faculties  in  good  and  progressive  in- 
stitutions in  the  determination  of  university  policies  and 
their  execution  is  much  larger  than  the  functions  legally 
delegated  to  faculties  by  the  constitutions  and  by-laws  of 
universities  in  general.  As  a  rule,  faculties  are  legally  em- 
powered chiefly  to  deal  with  the  governance  of  the  curri- 
culum and  student  body.  In  fact,  they  are  frequently  call- 
ed upon  to  discuss  and  make  recommendations  upon 
matters  of  educational  policy.  They  are  normally  consult- 
ed as  to  new  appointments ;  they  are  consulted  to  a  large 
extent  in  the  choice  of  presidents,  and  to  some  extent  in 
the  choice  of  deans.  They  are  frequently  given  a  hearing 
on  the  matter  of  salary  scale.  Thus,  to  a  large  and  grow- 
ing extent,  faculties  enjoy  the  substance  of  participation 
in  administration  without  its  legal  forms. 

The  main  contention  of  this  address  is  that  the 
actual  usages  and  tendencies  of  the  best  institutions  in 
this  regard  should  be  more  explicitly  legalized  in  the  con- 
constitutions  and  by-laws  of  universities.  As  a  matter 
of  history  it  seems  to  be  undoubtedly  the  case  that  when, 
in  the  not  very  remote  past,  there  were  in  America  no 
large  universities  serving  mulifarious  interests,  when  the 
elder  among  our  present  great  universities  were  like  the 
sraall  colleges  of  to-day  in  curricula  aims  and  numbers, 
the  faculties  exercised  much  larger  administrative  func- 
tions. The  older  American  college  was  more  or  less  like 
a  large  family.  The  professor  and  the  students  knew 
each  other,  the  professors  and  the  trustees  knew  each 
other,  and  the  alumni  were  known  to  all  the  members  of 
the  faculty.  The  growth  in  numbers,  and  in  the  complex- 
ity  of   educational   concerns    and   aims   has,   perforce, 


64  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

brought  with  it  greater  administrative  specialization  as 
well  as  a  greater  curricula  specialization.  The  growth  of 
higher  education  is  parrallel  here  to  the  industrial  de- 
velopment. Without  doubt,  this  specialization  of  func- 
tion has  been  developed  in  the  interests  of  economy  of 
efforts  and  productive  efficiency.  The  great  problem  in 
education,  as  in  industry,  is  to  harmonize  administrative 
efficiency  in  large  concerns  with  that  human  value  of 
self-determination  and  self-respect,  in  the  life  of  the 
worker,  without  which  his  work  will  surely  deteriorate  in 
quality.  We  hear,  on  all  hands,  of  the  demands  of  the  in- 
dustrial worker  for  a  voice  in  the  control  of  the  industry. 
I  do  not  think  that  the  parallelism  between  industry  and 
higher  education  can  be  carried  out  on  all  fours;  but,  in- 
asmuch as  the  work  of  higher  education  is  wrought  by 
mind  on  mind,  and  material  instruments  are  here  wholly 
subordinate  to  life  interests,  insofar  as  the  parallelism  in 
question  breaks  down,  it  does  so  in  favor  of  a  resumption 
of  a  greater  measure  of  control  by  the  faculty  in  ad- 
ministration. The  professor  deals  with  the  mind  as  a  liv- 
ing unity  and,  therefore,  should  always  consider  his  own 
work  as  an  element  in  the  whole  educational  process; 
whereas  the  industrial  worker  may  make  a  rivet  or  bore  a 
hole  without  taking  account  of  the  making  of  the  whole 
machine.  I  wish  to  insist  most  strongly  that  no  good 
educator  can  be  a  mere  pigeon-hole  specialist  or  pure  de- 
partmentalist. 

In  good  institutions,  faculties  do,  then,  informally 
participate  to  a  large  extent  in  university  administra- 
tion; but,  without  the  constitutional  forms  to  protect  it, 
the  substance  of  healthy  faculty  participation  in  adminis- 
iTation  may  vanish  at  any  time,  when  a  governing  board 
succumbs  to  extraneous  influences  inimical  to  the  nurture 
of  the  highest  quality  of  instruction  and  research.  These 
influences  may  come  from  the  unenlightened  interests  of 


FACULTIES  65 

portions  of  the  general  public,  of  the  alumni,  or  from  the 
lack  of  high  educational  standards  and  moral  courage  in 
the  president  as  well  as  in  the  governing  board,  or  from 
several  or  all  of  these  sources.  To  be  specific  on  one 
point,  it  is  certainly  not  conducive  to  an  improvement  in 
the  morale  and  personnel  of  the  faculty  when  a  small 
body  of  laymen,  themselves  incompetent  to  evaluate 
teaching  and  productive  ability,  and  acting  solely  on  the 
advice  of  a  president  who  may  be  neither  a  great  scholar 
or  educator,  nor  a  sound  judge  of  scholarship,  can  de- 
termine, without  regard  to  the  judgments  of  those  who 
have  expert  knowledge,  not  only  the  economic  and  aca- 
demic fates  of  genuine  productive  scholars  and  teachers 
but,  as  well,  the  fundamental  policies  of  the  institution  in 
which  these  scholars  and  teachers  must  do  their  work. 

I  would  specify  the  functions  of  the  faculty  in  the 
administration  of  a  university  as  follows: — 

a.  In  the  event  of  any  proposed  change  in  funda- 
mental educational  policy,  such  as  the  establishment  of 
new  colleges,  departments,  or  curricula,  the  legislative 
body  of  the  faculty  concerned  should  thoroughly  discuss 
the  proposed  step,  make  recommendations  thereon  to  the 
governing  board,  and  final  action  should  require  the  joint 
consent  of  the  governing  board  and  the  legislative 
faculty.  In  a  large  university  this  end  can  be  best  achiev- 
ed by  conference  between  duly  appointed  representatives 
of  the  faculty  and  the  governing  board. 

b.  Deans,  presidents,  and  other  administrative  of- 
ficers in  the  educational  division  of  the  institution, 
should  be  elected  by  the  governing  board,  upon  the  joint 
nomination  of  faculty  and  board.  Here  again,  of  course, 
in  all  large  institutions  the  work  can  be  best  and  most 
expeditiously  performed  through  committees.  The  presi- 
dent should  be  the  chairman  of  all  such  faculty  com- 
mittees.   To  illustrate  the  point:  If  the  college  of  arts  is 


66  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

looking  for  a  dean,  the  faculty  of  the  college  should  have 
a  nominating  committee  of  which  the  president  should  be 
chairman.  If  the  university  is  looking  for  a  president, 
the  general  faculty  should  have  a  nominating  committee. 
The  chief  business  of  administrative  officers  is  to  be 
leaders  in  the  administration  of  instruction  and  research, 
and  the  body  of  educational  experts  with  which  they  are 
to  labor  should  certainly  have  a  voice  in  their  selection. 

c.  "Where  the  higher  ranks  in  departments  of  in- 
struction and  research  are  named,  the  permanent  mem- 
bers of  the  departments  should  take  the  initiative  in  the 
selection  of  new  members.  Where  the  vacancies  exist  at 
the  top,  as  in  headships  of  departments,  the  heads  of  cog- 
nate departments  should  be  members  of  the  nominating 
committees. 

The  question  of  the  powers  of  faculties  with  regard 
to  tenure  and  procedure  in  dismissals  is  a  knotty  one.  I 
do  not  believe  that,  in  the  present  transitional  phase  of 
our  higher  education,  we  can  afford  to  accept,  without 
qualification,  the  dogma  of  life  tenure  for  professors. 
Mistakes  in  election  are  sometimes  made.  They  should  be 
rectified,  even  though  their  rectification  works  hardship 
to  individuals,  since  failure  to  rectify  them  works  im- 
measurable injury  to  numbers  of  plastic  and  gifted 
minds — the  selected  youth  who  constitute;  the  greatest 
riches  and  the  most  radiant  promise  of  the  body  social. 
We  professors  must,  as  a  corporate  body  and  as  individu- 
als, always  be  ready  to  have  the  status  of  our  vocation 
and  its  social  evaluation  determined  by  the  contribution 
which  we  are  making  to  the  up-building  of  the  living 
minds  of  the  new  generation.  If  a  faculty  be  competent, 
if  it  deserves  the  name  of  university  faculty,  it  should 
participate  in  administration;  insofar  as  it  may  be  incom- 
petent, its  house  should  be  set  in  order,  by  concerted  ac- 
tion. For  this  reason  I  believe  that  the  final  power  of  ap- 


FACULTIES  67 

pointment  and  dismissal  should  continue  to  rest  with  the 
governing  board,  subject  to  the  provisos  stated  below. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  right  of  the  faculty  to  par- 
ticipate in  judgment  upon  cases  of  dismissal,  is  essen- 
tial to  the  safeguarding  of  proper  academic  freedom.  No 
body  of  lajTuen  can  be  safely  intrusted  with  the  sole 
power  to  determine,  even  with  the  advice  of  the  president, 
the  nature  and  limits  of  freedom  of  teaching.  In  the 
majority  of  cases  where  dismissals  have  been  made  by 
trustees  alone  during  the  past  few  years,  the  causes  have 
been  chiefly  either  economic,  ethical,  political  or  other 
forms  of  heresy,  or  insubordination.  The  mentally  inert 
and  stupid,  the  lazy  or  otherwise  incompetent  on  the 
faculty,  have  rarely  been  disturbed  by  the  governing 
boards.  I  regret  to  say  that  boards,  and  sometimes 
faculties  too,  often  suffer  amiable  morons  more  gladly 
than  marked  nonconformist  individualities.  The  uni- 
versity that  has  no  heretics  on  its  faculty  is  a  dead  one. 

Universities  should  not  be  run  as  mere  business  con- 
cerns. The  election  of  a  professor  is  a  step  that  should 
not  be  taken  unadvisedly  or  lightly,  but  soberly  and  dis- 
creetly. When  the  institution  has  made  a  mistake  it 
should  accept  the  responsibility  and  share  the  burden  of 
the  mistake.  The  status  of  a  professor  should  be,  normal- 
ly, one  of  high  dignity,  security  and  permanence.  It  can- 
not be  made  a  very  gainful  occupation.  Only  through 
dignity  and  security  in  the  calling  can  we  insure  good 
men  and  good  work.  Therefore,  no  professor  should  be 
summarily  dismissed,  nor  without  the  opportunity  of  a 
full  investigation  by  a  jury  of  his  peers.  If  it  be  the  final 
decision  that  he  is  unfit  to  continue  in  office,  then  he 
should  have  at  least  a  year 's  notice  and  leave  of  absence 
with  salary  to  enable  him  to  find  a  more  suitable  place. 
Possibly  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when,  by  the  general 
elevation  of  the  standard  for  the  profession,  it  will  be 


68  INAUGUIL\L  SESSION 

safe  to  accord  generally  a  life  tenure.    But,  taking  the 
country  as  a  whole,  that  time  is  not  yet. 

d.  The  faculty,  since  it  consists  of  a  body  of  ex- 
perts in  teaching  and  research,  should  have  the  right  to 
decide  what  are  a  proper  number  of  teaching  hours  in  the 
various  departments  and  ranks,  and  what  is  the  proper 
proportion  of  students  and  instructors  in  classes  of 
various  types.  It  should  also  have  an  effectual  voice  in 
determining  how  much  time  may  be  spent  on  research, 
and  in  what  departments. 

e.  The  question  of  the  place  of  the  faculty  in  the  de- 
termination of  the  salary  scale  and  its  distribution  is  the 
most  delicate  and  difficult  question  that  is  included  in  the 
general  subject  of  our  discussion. 

It  is  worthy  of  serious  consideration  whether  the 
faculty  budget  committee  should  not  include,  in  addition 
to  the  president  and  deans,  elected  representatives  of  the 
general  faculty.  To  have  such  representatives  might  ob- 
viate the  charge  that  salary  budgets  are  made  by  star 
chamber  procedings;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  would  put 
the  elected  representatives  of  the  faculty  in  a  very 
delicate  position  to  be  passing,  what  would  be  in  effect,  a 
final  official  judgment  on  the  merits  of  their  colleagues. 
I  am  inclined,  after  prolonged  consideration  of  this  mat- 
ter, to  the  view  that  it  is  better,  on  the  whole,  to  make  the 
president  and  deans  the  sole  scapegoats.  It  should  be 
noted,  however,  that  in  some  places  where  the  salary  bud- 
get is  made  by  committee,  including  elected  representa- 
tives of  the  faculty  and  then  referred  back  to  the  faculty 
for  consideration  and  approval,  before  being  passed  on  to 
the  trustees  for  final  action,  the  plan  seems  to  work  well, 
as  at  Oberlin  College.  I  doubt,  however,  its  expediency 
in  a  large  university  where  there  are  so  many  competing 
interests  clamoring  for  more  adequate  financial  recogni- 
tion.   It  seems  to  me,  on  the  whole,  that  it  is  better  to  let 


FACULTIES  69 

the  president  and  the  deans  bear  this  curse  on  their  own 
broad  shoulders.  Let  them  pay  for  the  giddy  heights  they 
occupy  by  suffering  the  obloquy  of  budget  making. 

Any  statement  of  the  desirable  administrative  func- 
tions of  faculties,  of  course,  involves  conceptions  as  to  the 
respective  functions  of  governing  boards  and  presidents. 
It  seems  to  me  that  the  governing  board  should  continue 
to  function  as  the  ultimate  custodian  of  the  property  and 
income,  and  joint  custodian  of  the  general  policies,  of  the 
university.  Its  consent  should  be  necessary  to  all  changes 
in  staff,  as  well  as  in  policy.  I  conceive  the  governing 
board  to  be  the  guardian  of  a  public  trust ;  and,  therefore, 
responsible  to  the  public,  which  establishes  and  supports 
universities  for  the  performance  of  a  public  service.  This 
service  is  immediately  discharged  by  the  faculty,  but  the 
position  of  the  trustees  is  that  of  guardians  chosen  to  in- 
sure its  proper  discharge.  There  need  be  no  conflict  be- 
tween the  trustee 's  conception  of  his  obligation  as  a  pru- 
dential public  officer  and  the  professor's  sense  of  the 
dignity  and  value  of  his  own^  functions  as  a  public 
servant,  and  of  his  individual  or  corporate  capacity  to 
determine  the  conditions  and  manner  in  which  he  can  best 
render  that  service.  But,  in  order  to  avoid  the  misunder- 
standings which  so  frequently  arise,  the  mistakes  so  often 
made,  and  the  consequent  injury  to  university  morale, 
regular  channels  should  be  established  for  the  interchange 
of  educational  views  and  the  discussion  of  educational 
problems  between  governing  boards  and  faculties.  Where 
both  governing  boards  and  faculties  are  numerically 
small,  this  might  be  done  through  joint  meetings  of  the 
two  bodies.  Such  a  plan  would  not  work  in  our  larger  in- 
stitutions, however.  There  are  two  ways  in  which  this 
interchange  of  ideas  may  be  effected  in  the  large  univer- 
sities : 

1.    The  faculty  might  elect  a  committee  on  university 


70  INAUGUR.\L  SESSION 

policy  to  confer  with  the  board  as  a  whole,  if  the  latter  be 
not  too  large,  or  with  a  similar  committee  selected  from 
the  board.  The  faculty  committee,  of  course,  should  re- 
ceive its  instructions  from  the  faculty  and  refer  back  to 
the  latter  questions  of  fundamental  policy,  agreed  upon  by 
the  joint  committee.  This  plan  is  in  successful  operation 
in  several  leading  institutions. 

2.  The  faculty  might  elect  several  members  of  the 
governing  board.  This  plan  would  have  the  advantage  of 
insuring  the  presence,  at  all  meetings  of  the  board,  of 
several  experts  who  understand  the  needs  and  weaknesses 
of  the  institution,  and  could  thus  directly  convey  to  their 
lay  colleagues  the  general  views  of  the  experts  who  are  im- 
mediately involved  in  the  discharge  of  the  university's 
social  obligations.  Serious  objection  to  the  second  plan 
is  that  it  involves  the  voting  of  a  few  members  of  the 
faculty  on  the  salaries,  appointments,  promotions  and  dis- 
missals of  their  colleagues,  as  well  as  upon  the  dicision  of 
important  matters  of  policy  concerning  which  there  may 
be  a  deep  cleavage  in  the  faculty.  I  am  not  prepared  to 
say  that  this  objection  is  fatal  to  the  working  of  the  plan 
of  direct  faculty  membership  on  the  board.  It  seems  to  be 
desirable  that  it  should  be  tried  out.  The  faculty  mem- 
bers might  vote  on  all  matters  excej^t  the  salaries,  promo- 
tions, appointments,  and  dismissals,  of  members  of  the 
teaching  staff,  I  feel  that  the  suggestion  that  the  faculty 
representatives  be  non-voting  members  of  the  board  is  a 
weak  and  inconsistent  compromise.  If  they  do  not  vote, 
they  are  in  effect  only  a  committee  advising  the  trustees, 
but  without  power. 

After  much  study  of  the  subject,  I  am  not  prepared  to 
say  which  of  these  plans  is  the  better  one.  I  do  feel  that 
some  regularly  established  channel  of  communication  be- 
tween the  legislative  body  of  the  faculty  and  the  trustees 
other  than  the  president  should  be  provided,  and  I  hope 


FACULTIES  71 

that  American  universities  will  experiment  with  both  of 
these  plans. 

As  to  presidents,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that 
they  should  be  abolished.  It  is  true  that,  sometimes, 
we  do  not  get  along  very  well  with  them,  but  I  do  not  see 
how  we  can  get  along  without  them.  The  president  stands 
in  a  unique  position  at  present,  and  I  think  he,  or  perhaps 
' '  they ' '  should  continue  to  stand  in  a  unique  position ;  in- 
asmuch as  the  president  is  the  chairman  of  the  faculty 
and  its  important  committees,  and,  as  the  chief  executive 
officer  of  the  institution,  the  author  and  transmitter  of 
recommendations  to  the  governing  board.  I  have  said 
''they"  because  it  seems  to  many  of  my  colleagues,  as  well 
as  to  myself,  that  the  present  duties  of  the  president  of  a 
large  American  university  are,  perhaps,  too  complex  and 
onerous  to  be  satisfactorily  discharged  by  any  one  person. 
The  duties  of  the  office  should  be,  in  some  way,  divided.  I 
am  not  certain  as  to  how  this  can  best  be  accomplished; 
but  it  seems  to  me  that  the  new  plan  at  Yale  University, 
by  which,  as  I  understand  it,  the  provost  is  the  executive 
head  or  leader  in  the  matter  of  educational  policies,  and 
the  president  is  the  head  of  the  university's  business  in- 
terests, is  an  important  experiment  which  should  receive 
careful  consideration.  In  any  event,  however  the  work 
may  be  divided  up,  the  complexity  and  growing  bulk  of 
the  university's  educational  needs  make  it  imperative  that 
there  should  continue  to  be  one  administrative  head  for 
educational  concerns.  I  do  not  believe  that,  at  present  at 
least,  American  universities  could  be  successfully  ad- 
ministered if  their  principal  executive  officer  were  elected 
every  year  or  so  by  the  faculty.  I  think  the  European 
rectorial  system  would  not  work  here.  Since  our  educa- 
tional affairs  are  so  varied  and  complex,  and  in  such  a 
state  of  flux,  we  need  one  leader  whose  business  it  is  to  co- 
ordinate interests, problems,  and  policies,  and  to  originate 


72  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

and  suggest  new  lines  of  policy  to  faculty  and  governing 
board.  The  president  is  in  the  position  of  an  educational 
referee;  but  he  should  be  a  constitutional  referee  and 
leader,  digesting  and  hannonizing  the  claims  and  interests 
of  various  departments  and  colleges  of  the  university,  and 
responsible  to  both  houses,  namely,  trustees  and  faculty. 
A  body  of  deans  should  be  his  executive  cabinet.  It 
follows  that,  when  the  prime  minister  and  cabinet  have 
lost  the  confidence  of  both  houses,  it  is  time  to  have  a  new 
government.  At  present,  the  lower  house,  the  faculty,  has 
no  recognized  means  of  passing  a  vote  of  want  of  confi- 
dence. 

If  there  is  to  be  any  distinction  in  dignity  and  power, 
the  faculty  should  be  the  upper  house;  the  governing 
board  might  be  regarded  as  a  standing  committee  of  the 
commons,  as  well  as  the  property-holding  corporation  for 
the  commons  (which  is  the  public).  The  president  is  the 
coordinator  and  harmonizer  of  the  views  of  the  other 
bodies.  It  may  be  said  that  the  faculty  is  engaged  to  teach, 
and,  if  its  members  have  any  time  and  energy  left,  to  in- 
vestigate and  write ;  but  its  primary  business  it  to  do  the 
job  it  is  hired  to  do  and  in  the  way  in  which  the  governing 
board,  out  of  its  wisdom  in  interpreting  the  public  de- 
mands, sees  fit  to  dictate,  just  as  a  brick-layer  is  hired  to 
lay  bricks  without  criticizing  the  purpose  or  architecture 
of  the  edifice.  This  view  of  the  faculty's  function  has 
found  frequent  expression  in  reputable  journals  and  is 
held  by  some  citizens  and,  possibly,  by  a  few  trustees;  but 
I  have  no  time  to  wast  in  debating  with  anybody  who  puts 
the  work  of  the  faculty  in  the  same  category  as  that  of 
janitors  or  clerks.  Persons  who  hold  such  views  have  not 
the  faintest  inkling  of  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  a  uni- 
versity. A  faculty  may  be  wrong — ' '  To  err  is  human ' ' — 
but  if  a  faculty  is  not  more  competent  to  decide  upon  the 
wisdom  or  integritv  of  the  deeds  of  its  executives,  if  it  is 


FACULTIES  73 

not  better  fitted  to  determine  whether  the  actual  adminis- 
trative conditions  are  a  help  or  a  hinderance  to  the  perfor- 
mance of  its  own  public  services  than  any  body  of  laymen, 
then  the  institution  is  not  a  real  university.  The  incom- 
petence of  the  faculty  reflects  the  failure  of  the  governing 
board  and  the  administration,  and  if  the  institution  is  not 
a  real  university,  it  needs  to  be  either  wiped  out  of  exis- 
tence or  cleaned  thoroughly  from  cellar  to  garret.  It  needs 
scarcely  to  be  said  that  the  general  discussion  of  this 
paper  does  not  apply  to  such  institutions .  Concluding 
this  brief  resume  of  the  various  administrative  functions 
of  the  faculty,  I  would  again  enter  a  plea  for  open-minded 
discussion  and  experimentation. 

Fuller  constitutional  recognition  of  the  rights  and 
duties  of  the  faculty  in  administration  are  herein  advocat- 
ed chiefly  on  two  grounds,  which  are  interdependent; 
namely,  improvement  in  the  faculty  personnel  and  morale, 
and  improvement  in  the  quality  of  their  service  to 
society  Notwithstanding  the  great  and  rapid  growth  in 
universities,  in  numbers  of  students,  teachers,  and  gradu- 
ates, and  in  productive  output,  it  is  obvious  to  any  well-in- 
formed observer,  that  we  have  not  been  getting  the  results 
we  might  get.  No  doubt  the  universities  will  exert  an 
ever  increasing,  and,  on  the  whole,  a  bettering  influence  on 
American  life.  In  spite  of  the  omnipotence  of  governing 
boards,  the  reputed  omniscience  of  presidents,  the  inepti- 
tude of  faculty  meetings  and  the  extraordinary  immunity 
of  undergraduates  to  intellectual  infection,  we  must  have 
faith  in  education,  for,  "Faith  is  the  evidence  of  things 
not  seen,  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for. ' '  But  we  are 
only  scratching  the  surface  of  the  educational  possibili- 
ties, and  we  are  not  even  scratching  the  surface  very 
thoroughly.  Various  forms  of  extra-curricula  student  ac- 
tivities arouse,  on  the  part  of  many  of  the  student  body,  a 
keener  interest  than  the  work  of  classroom,  library  and 


74  IXAUGUR.\L  SESSION 

laboratory.  The  fact  that  the  side-shows  are  of  more  in- 
terest to  many  students  than  the  main  circus  is  partial 
evidence,  at  least,  of  the  failure  of  the  ring-master  and 
performers  in  the  main  circus.  If  a  large  proportion  of 
lively  youth  are  not  intrigued  by  the  business  of  higher 
education,  there  is  something  wrong  with  the  conduct  of 
this  business.  Too  large  a  jDroportion  of  our  university 
teachers  appear  to  students  to  be  ineffective  molly- 
coddles. AVe  sorely  need  to  make  the  professoriate  a  man- 
sized  job,  not  a  sailor's  snugharbor  for  persons  of  the 
neuter  gender.  There  is  a  faint  color  of  truth  in  the  saying, 
* '  There  are  three  sexes — men,  women,  and  teachers. ' '  We 
must  have  a  more  dpiamic  t^'pe  of  university  teacher  and 
investigator,  teachers  with  more  vigorous  and  inspiring 
personalities,  with  more  mental  initiative,  teachers  who 
are  not  satisfied  to  go  through  the  motions  of  classroom 
work  and  imitation  research.  In  short,  our  profession  has 
not  succeeded  in  recruiting  a  sufficient  proportion  of  the 
first-rate  native  minds  that  are  born  in  every  generation. 
How  shall  we  do  better?  For  one  thing,  I  am  sure,  we 
must  establish  more  striking  differentials  in  salary  scales. 
We  must  make  it  possible  for  really  able  men  to  win 
decent  incomes  in  the  profession,  incomes  that  will  com- 
pete in  attractiveness,  when  there  is  added  to  them  the 
other  delights  of  the  profession,  with  those  enjoyed  by 
leading  men  of  other  professions,  such  as  medicine,  law, 
engineering,  and  even  business.  It  is  not  part  of  my  pro- 
vince to  discuss  the  salary  question,  but  I  wish  to  say  that, 
while  higher  salaries  are  necessary,  these  will  not  be 
enough.  Self-determination  is  a  hackneyed  work  to-day, 
but  it  is  a  good  word.  The  professors  are  either  the  best 
educational  experts  of  the  country,  or  else  they  are  hollow 
shams.  If  we  are  to  have  men  of  vigor  and  initiative 
23racticing  the  profession  of  handing  on  to  the  new  genera- 
tion the  accrued  achievements  of  the  higher  civilization. 


FACULTIES  75 

and  of  adding  to  these  achievements,  we  must  order  the 
operation  of  our  universities  so  that,  in  all  matters  that 
vitally  touch  the  practice  of  university  teaching  and  re- 
search, those  who  are  experts  will  have  the  freest  field 
possible  to  function  effectively  as  experts.  It  is  dis- 
heartening enough  and  it  lames  efficiency  not  to  be  able  to 
make  a  decent  livelihood  in  the  practice  of  a  profession 
than  which  there  is  none  more  essential  to  the  on-going 
and  improvement  of  civilization;  but  it  is  still  more  dis- 
heartening and  still  more  lames  efficiency  when  the  com- 
petent professor  sees,  and  is  powerless  to  prevent,  the 
dilution  and  cheapening  of  the  educational  work  of  the  in- 
stitution through  its  succumbing  to  the  ever  imminent  and 
insistent  pressure  to  spread  out  its  work  over  more  and 
more  ill-prepared  and  unpurposeful  students,  and  to  see 
the  institution  rush  hastily,  without  adequate  equipment 
and  personnel,  into  new  educational  enterprises.  One  of 
the  curses  of  higher  education  in  this  country  to-day  is  the 
apparent  worship  by  the  public,  alumni,  governing  boards, 
and  administrators,  yes,  and  to  tell  it  not  in  Gath,  publish 
it  not  in  Gilead,  the  worship,  even  by  professors,  of  the 
golden  calf  of  quantity  production.  The  most  serious 
menace  to  the  maintenance  or  improvement  of  the 
qualitative  standards  of  higher  education  to-day  comes 
from  the  ever-rising  flood  of  freshmen.  Faculties  seem  to 
be  powerless  in  the  face  of  this  menace.  The  situation  is 
especially  alarming  in  the  state  universities.  Legislatures, 
being  without  knowledge,  do  not  appreciate  the  situation; 
the  governing  boards  face  it  only  intermittently,  namely, 
in  trying  to  find  the  money  for  new  instructors ;  the  facul- 
ties are  face-to-face  with  it  every  day;  privately  they 
groan  over  it,  publicly  they  are  passive  and  silent ;  theirs 
not  to  reason  why,  theirs  but  to  teach  and  die.  The 
numbers  roll  up,  the  courses  multiply  by  fission,  like  the 
lower  organisms,  universities  rush  to  get  cheap  and  in- 


76  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

experienced  teachers  who  sometimes  are  not  even  worth 
the  pittances  they  are  paid,  to  turn  out  ever-growing 
hordes  of  graduates  who  have  amassed  the  correct  number 
of  credit  slips,  but  who  have  no  clear  idea  of  scholarly  or 
scientific  method,  no  real  insight  into  the  meaning  of  edu- 
cation, no  exacting  standards  of  thought  and  taste.  The 
inrush  of  hordes  of  unsettled  and  badly  prepared  students 
has  its  touching  aspects.  It  is  in  part  at  least  an  ex- 
pression of  the  yearning  of  our  democracy  for  spiritual 
development,  and  of  a  blind  faith  in  the  mystic  power  of 
education  to  transmute  the  soul  of  youth  by  some  alchemy 
or  magic  into  nobler  and  worthier  life.  But  we  do  dis- 
service to  democracy  when  we  fail  to  exercise  rigorously 
the  process  of  selection  by  which  only  those  qualified  by 
nature  and  by  nurture  are  chosen  to  be  the  responsive  sub- 
jects of  university  education.  We  must  get  rid  of  that 
democratic  form  of  sentimentality  which  ignores  the  in- 
exorable fact  that,  in  every  generation,  by  the  operation 
of  the  blind  forces  of  nature  or  by  the  will  of  God  (call  it 
what  you  will,  it  matters  not),  only  a  small  minority  of 
the  youth  have  the  native  capacity  for  acquiring  the  high- 
est degree  of  education.  To  dissipate  our  energies  and  our 
resources  in  the  universities  in  catering  to  every  comer  is 
to  do  injustice  to  the  more  gifted,  and  in  the  long  run  to 
our  democracy.  For  we  fail  to  train  up  leaders,  and  we 
foster  the  illusion  on  the  part  of  the  many  that  they  are 
getting  a  higher  education. 

I  recognize  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  our 
faculty  members  are  not  fit  to  do  things  any  better  than 
they  are  now  doing.  I  recognize  that  some  of  them  are  not 
fit  to  pass  balanced  and  wise  judgments  on  matters  of 
educational  policy.  It  is  a  day  of  confusion  and  unrest  in 
education,  as  in  the  body  politic.  The  children  are  come 
to  the  birth  and  there  is  not  strength  to  bear  them.  But  I 
do  not  see  how  we  can  expect  to  make  our  universities 


FACULTIES  77 

more  effective  ministrants  of  a  higher  civilization,  unless 
we  can  make  them  better  nurturing  grounds  for  that  aris- 
tocracy of  intelligence,  character,  and  taste,  of  which  de- 
mocracy stands  in  such  sore  need,  for  its  leaders  and  ex- 
emplars everywhere  in  public  life — in  politics,  in  art, 
letters,  the  drama,  social  philosophy  and  practice.  We 
are  living  in  an  era  which  has  made  jettison  of  inherited 
standards  of  thought,  conduct,  and  social  order;  and  has 
as  yet  brought  forth  no  new,  more  organic  and  coherent 
standards  to  take  their  places.  We  have  not,  and  do  not 
want,  a  hereditary  aristocracy  based  on  vested  privileges 
and  legal  and  economic  injustices.  We  have  not,  but  we 
sorely  need  anc.  must  develop,  if  our  civilization  is  to  en- 
dure and  progress,  a  spiritual  elite,  an  aristocracy  imbued 
with  the  sense  of  service,  of  noblesse  oblige;  one  which  is 
ever  being  built  up  to  the  highest  point  of  power  by  the 
selection  of  those  with  the  best  native  capacities,  and  by 
the  intensive  training  of  these  superior  native  capacities 
to  the  highest  point  possible.  It  is  the  function  of  the  uni- 
versity to  be  in  the  fullest  sense  the  transmitter  of  culture, 
the  initiator  of  the  selected  in  every  generation  into  a 
comprehensive  and  balanced  consciousness  of  the  creative 
meaning  of  civilization,  into  a  recognition  of  the  cardinal 
fact  that  civilization  is  made  and  renewed  and  enhanced 
just  in  the  degree  in  which  the  heritage  of  culture 
quickens,  nurtures,  and  expands  the  individual  mind. 
Where  else  can  this  work  be  done  if  not  in  the  university  ? 
Where  are  we  to  look  for  sound  judgment  and  wise  in- 
sight, for  unprejudiced  facing  of  facts,  for  the  fresh  de- 
termination of  facts  and  their  interpretation  in  terms  of 
human  values  if  not  to  the  university  men?  We  certainly 
cannot  look  for  these  qualities  in  the  market  place,  in  the 
popular  journals,  or  on  the  political  rostrum.  Can  the 
blind  lead  the  blind  1  Can  the  natural  elite  become,  by  in- 
tensive cultivation,  the  educated  elite,  if  they  are  taught 


78  INAUGURAL  SESSION 

by  persons  who  are  themselves  incapable  of  seeing  and 
kindling  to  the  great  vocation  of  the  university  teacher,  as 
the  custodian  of  the  rational  and  spiritual  interests  of 
civilization  ?  How  can  we  expect  a  more  virile  and  creative 
type  of  teacher  and  scholar,  if  he  is  to  have  no  effective 
part  in  determining  the  conditions  under  which  he  works  ? 
I  would  put  the  plea  for  greater  faculty  participa- 
tion in  university  affairs,  then,  not  on  the  ground  that  it 
will  make  us  more  at  ease  in  Zion ;  but  on  the  ground  that 
it  will  increase  our  burdens  and  responsibilities ;  and  may 
thereby  enable  us  to  grow  up  to  our  tasks,may  ner^^e  us  to 
be  more  effective  participants  in  the  perpetuation  and  im- 
provement of  civilization.  If  I  am  right  in  contending 
that  the  conservation  and  progress  of  the  higher  civiliza- 
tion in  America  depends  chiefly  on  the  universities,  it 
follows  that  any  proposed  change  in  the  method  of  con- 
ducting university  affairs  should  be  tried  by  this  test: — 
Will  it,  or  will  it  not,  make  the  universities  more  effective 
instruments  for  the  conservation  of  whatsoever  is  worth 
conserving  in  the  culture  of  the  past,  and  for  the  increase 
of  that  culture  by  new  insights  in  science,  letters,  art, 
social  thought  and  practice ;  will  it  be  more  effective  in  the 
selection  and  functioning  of  a  better  personnel !  The  uni- 
versity exists  to  serve  the  mass,  not  directly,  but  indirect- 
ly; by  conserving  and  improving  the  best  instruments  of 
culture,  not  by  taking  its  culture  from  the  mass.  It  can- 
not do  this  unless  its  daily  work  is  carried  on  by  a 
vigorous,  competent,  self-respecting  personnel.  Its  task  is 
more  exacting,  perhaps,  than  that  of  any  other  institution 
in  our  civilization.  Time  was  when  the  church  was  the 
chief  custodian  of  a  higher  civilization.  That  time 
has  long  since  gone  by.  Time  was  when  in  an 
hereditary  aristocracy  resided  the  custodianship  of  cul- 
ture. That  time  too  has  gone  by.  Democracy  is  in  the 
saddle  and  does  not  know  whither  it  is  riding.    Unless  it 


FACULTIES  79 

supports  and  nurtures  an  institution  which  can  find  a  way 
and  lead  it,  democracy  is  riding  to  a  bad  fall.  This  in- 
stitution for  democracy  is  the  university.  My  argument 
for  more  recognized  participation  by  the  faculty  in  ad- 
ministration has,  as  its  central  thesis,  the  belief  that  this 
change  would  be  a  means  by  which  the  members  of  the 
faculty  might  grow  up  to  a  keener  sense  of  their  great 
tasks,  and  develop  more  strength  to  discharge  them.  Our 
supreme  functions  are,  as  I  have  indicated,  to  be  the  con- 
servators and  the  improvers  of  humane  culture — that  is 
to  say,  of  culture  as  a  means  for  the  improvement  of  the 
human  race.  It  is  only  as  we  are  conscious  of  the  diffi- 
culty and  the  worthiness  of  our  tasks  as  servants  of  the 
commonweal,  that  we  should  ask  for  anything.  We 
should  ask  for  a  more  effective  participation  in  the  direc- 
tion of  university  policies  only  that  thereby  we  may  be 
freer  to  serve  more  effectively  the  whole  of  society  by 
better  conserving,  transmitting,  and  improving  the  cul- 
tural implements  for  the  perfection  of  man. 


THE  IXTEGEATIOX  OF  THE  UXIVEESITY 

WIIvLISTON  WAI^KER,  PH.D.,  D.D.,  I,.H.D. 

Provost  of  Yale  University 


The  American  university  has  been  a  rather  planless 
growth,  due  largely  to  an  opportunist  attempt  to  meet  an 
ever-changing  and  constantly  enlarging  appreciation  of 
its  possible  service  to  the  community,  which  is  the  prime 
warrant  for  its  existence.  Its  roots  run  back  into  the  col- 
leges of  colonial  days.  Their  purpose  was  primarily  to 
train  men  for  the  Christian  ministry,  and,  in  a  lesser 
measure,  to  supply  the  succession  of  their  own  teachers, 
then  the  only  generally  recognized  learned  professions. 

The  close  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  dawn  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  saw  a  demand  for  systematic  instruction 
in  law  and  medicine,  till  then  largely  secured  privately, 
witnessing  to  the  vindication  of  the  professional  standing 
of  these  disciplines.  The  result  was  the  loose  attachment 
of  law  and  medical  schools  to  the  existing  colleges,  the 
union  being  the  more  imperfect  because  of  the  pre- 
dominantly classical  curricula  of  the  older  departments  of 
our  colleges,  even  though  they  had  already  outgrown  the 
dominance  of  ministeral  preparation,  and  also  because  in- 
struction of  these  so-called  ''special  schools"  was  long  in 
the  hands  of  part-time  teachers  engaged  in  active  practice. 
The  great  university  advance  of  the  nineteenth  century 
was  in  the  recognition  of  the  scholarly  demands  of  other 
professions  widely  beyond  the  few  formerly  accounted 
"learned. ' '  The  natural  sciences,  with  their  wealth  of  in- 
vestigation and  application,  claimed  rightful  university 
recognition.    Special  branches  of  scientific  effort,  such  as 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  81 

engineering,  metallurgy,  mining,  electricity,  were  knock- 
ing successfully  at  university  doors.  The  great  employ- 
ment of  agriculture  demanded  and  obtained  a  more  scien- 
tific treatment.  Special  professions,  of  which  journalism, 
animal  industry,  or  forestry  may  serve  as  examples,  as- 
serted their  right  to  a  place  within  university  walls. 

The  growing  aesthetic  culture  of  our  people  claimed  a 
place  for  music  and  the  fine  arts.  More  recently  the  great 
interests  of  secondary  teaching  and  the  occupation  of 
business  have  rightly  received  university  recognition. 
Nor  is  there  any  visible  natural  limit  to  the  possibilities 
of  the  enlargement  of  these  university  curricula,  for  the 
controlling  principle  of  university  life  is  now,  as  always, 
that  of  service  to  the  commonwealth.  As  the  appreciation 
of  the  possibilities  of  service  enlarge,  the  range  of  subjects 
taught  in  our  universities  must  necessarily  grow. 

All  this  growth  is  normal  and  proper,  but  it  has  been 
largely  haphazard.  The  need  of  a  particular  discipline 
has  made  itself  felt.  A  new  school  or  department  has  then 
been  added,  with  a  faculty  of  its  own,  to  existing  bodies, 
without  careful  planning  as  to  how  the  new  might  be  fitted 
into  the  old  as  into  an  orderly  whole.  Too  often  the  new 
discipline  has  had  but  a  grudging  welcome  from  the  repre- 
sentatives of  older  studies  and  its  exponents  have  felt  that 
they  must  struggle  for  their  university  standing.  The 
result  is  that  the  modern  American  university  is  too  often 
anything  but  an  organization;  rather  an  aggregation  of 
loosely  related  schools,  with  unlike  methods  and  discord- 
ant aims. 

Three  great  purposes  are  characteristic  of  all  true 
university  education.  The  teaching  must  fit  the  student 
for  service  in  some  special  life  work.  It  must  train  him  to 
be  a  competent  physician,  engineer,  farmer,  lawyer,  or 
business  man,  or  for  whatever  field  of  service  it  may  be  in 
which  he  will  earn  his  livelihood  and  make  his  particular 


82  EDUCATIOX-\L  SESSION 

contribution  to  the  welfare  of  the  community  of  which  he 
is  a  member.  Such  training  must  of  necessity  be  thorough, 
modem,  and  up  to  the  requirements  of  present  know- 
ledge. He  must  be  fitted  to  do  the  work  of  his  choice  in 
the  most  efficient  manner  possible. 

A  second  aim  is  to  equip  the  student  for  broad- 
minded,  intelligent  citizenship.  He  is  not  merely  to  be 
the  best  farmer,  the  most  efficient  engineer,  and  the  most 
skillful  physician  that  the  university  can  make  of  him ;  he 
is  to  be  a  factor  in  a  democracy,  based  ultimately  on  pub- 
lic opinion,  to  which  he  is  to  make  his  well-balanced,  clear- 
visioned  contribution  as  a  man  of  weight,  intelligence 
and  sound  judgment,  awake  to  the  wider  needs  of  the  age 
and  with  his  own  well-reasoned  opinion  as  to  how  they 
should  be  met. 

A  third  aim,  no  less  important  than  the  others,  is  the 
development  of  character.  The  student  should  leave  the 
university  stronger,  more  self-controlled,  more  manly, 
than  when  he  enters  its  doors.  His  student  days  should  not 
merely  be  a  mental,  but  also  a  moral,  ripening  time.  He 
should  leave  its  walls  not  only  an  abler,  but  a  better  and  a 
stronger  man. 

In  speaking  of  these  three  aims,  attention  is  directed 
primarily  to  the  needs  of  the  whole  body  of  students, 
graduate  and  undergraduate  alike.  It  should  never  be 
forgotten  that  research  is  also  a  duty  of  the  university. 
To  enlarge  the  boundaries  of  human  knowledge,  to  point 
the  competent  and  ambitious  toward  promising  lines  of  in- 
vestigation, to  increase  the  efficiency  of  present  and  future 
activities,  is  quite  as  fully  the  task  of  the  university  as  to 
transmit  the  wisdom  of  the  past.  No  other  means  is  so 
effective  as  a  proper  emphasis  on  research  to  keep  in- 
structors fresh  and  vital  in  relation  to  the  subejcts  which 
they  teach.  Eesearch  stimulates  that  sense  of  reality 
which  is  so  essential  to  good  instruction.     No  example  is 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  83 

so  inspiring  to  the  purposeful  student  as  that  of  a  teacher 
engaged  in  the  solution  of  the  real  problems  of  any  im- 
portant field. 

Yet,  while  research  should  never  be  overlooked,  it  is 
evident  that  it  is  in  no  way  in  conflict  with  the  three  uni- 
versity duties  which  have  been  indicated  as  those  involved 
in  relation  to  all  students,  for  research  in  any  field  can  be 
shared  only  with  a  limited  and  proficient  group. 

Only  as  all  of  these  aims  are  measurably  fulfilled  can 
the  university  be  regarded  as  accomplishing  its  appropri- 
ate function.  In  proportion  as  it  fails  in  any  one,  it  falls 
short  of  that  full-rounded  training  which  the  student  has 
a  right  to  expect. 

Of  these  three  aims,  that  first  mentioned,  equipment 
for  specific  work  in  life,  is  now  most  emphasized  and  most 
adequately  accomplished.  The  number  of  fields  in  which 
training  is  offered  is  constantly  increasing,  and  the  natur- 
al competition  between  those  who  enter  them  makes 
evident  the  competency  of  the  training  offered  by  the 
various  universities,  and  stimulates  the  several  schools 
and  departments  to  keep  abreast  of  the  latest  results  of 
scientific  discovery  and  technical  method.  It  is  true,  in- 
deed, that  university  efficiency  requires  constant  vigi- 
lance; but  there  is  at  present  less  likelihood  of  inefficiency 
in  specific  training  for  a  definite  life  work  than  in  the 
achievement  of  either  of  the  other  of  the  three  main  tasks 
which  a  university  sets  before  itself. 

If  the  first  aim,  that  of  training  for  a  special  life 
work,  has  the  great  advantages  of  concreteness  and  of 
readily  tested  results,  the  third  aim  mentioned,  that  of  the 
development  of  character,  labors  under  the  handicaps  of 
vagueness  and  indirection.  Character  can  be  taught  only 
in  most  moderate  measure.  A  student  can  be  trained  to  be 
a  skillful  engineer;  to  develop  him  into  a  good  man  is  not 
so  direct  and  simple  a  process.     The  development  of  char- 


84  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

acter  is  chiefly  a  resultant  of  atmosphere,  example,  and 
personal  contact.  The  university  has  a  large  field  of 
service  here,  but  the  results  desired  can  seldom  be  ac- 
complished, in  the  cases  of  the  majority  of  students,  by  the 
foundation  of  special  chairs.  Rather  it  is  the  duty  of 
those  charged  with  university  appointments  and  control 
to  see  to  it  that  men  of  character,  of  idealism,  and  of  in- 
stinct for  service,  as  well  as  of  the  indispensable  know- 
ledge, are  appointed  to  faculty  positions,  that  the  contact 
of  the  student  with  his  teacher  may  stimulate  his  moral 
nature  as  well  as  his  intellect.  Those  entrusted  with 
government  must  see  to  it  also  that  the  university  in  all 
its  relations,  to  faculty,  to  students,  and  to  the  general 
public,  is  an  example  of  justice  and  fair-dealing.  In  a 
word,  the  aim  of  the  university  now  considered,  that  of 
the  development  of  character  can  best  be  achieved  by  the 
creation  and  vigilant  maintenance  of  an  atmosphere  in 
which  the  manly  virtues  naturally  flourish,  and  the  stim- 
ulus of  which  is  felt  by  all  who  breathe  it. 

The  second  of  the  aims  described,  that  of  training  for 
broad-minded,  intelligent  citizenship,  is  that  now,  I 
believe,  least  satisfactorily  accomplished.  It  is  the  pur- 
pose whose  fulfilment  can  most  fully  be  furthered  by  a 
greater  integration  of  the  university.  There  can  be  no 
question  that  the  broader  aspects  of  education  are  in 
danger  of  neglect  through  a  one-sided  emphasis  on  im- 
mediate preparation  for  a  specific  type  of  life  work.  It  is 
not  that  such  preparation  is  not  necessary.  It  is  funda- 
mental; but  in  its  accomplishment  the  other  and  wider  at- 
tainment should  not  be  sacrificed.  The  older  term  for 
theses  values  was  ' '  cultural. ' '  The  definition  is  still  ap- 
propriate, though  ' '  cultural ' '  has  a  self -regarding  aspect, 
as  if  the  development  of  the  individual  student  was  a 
prime  end  in  itself.  That  development  must  be  a  main 
purpose  of  education,  but  not  for  himself  alone,  rather 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  85 

that  the  student  may  become  the  more  valuable  as  a  citi- 
zen, clear-visioned,  intelligent,  judicially  minded.  It  is 
not  an  isolation  of  superiority  above  his  less  advantaged 
fellows  that  is  the  ideal,  but  an  equipment  for  leadership 
among  them,  a  capacity  to  judge  sanely,  to  distinguish  the 
permanent  from  the  transient,  the  greater  from  the  less,  to 
weigh  accurately  the  aims  and  tendencies  of  his  age,  that 
he  may  serve  it  the  better. 

No  student  should  graduate  from  an  American  uni- 
versity without  having  the  outstanding  questions  of  the 
age  presented  to  his  serious  consideration,  and,  if  possi- 
ble, not  without  having  learned  to  think  for  himself  upon 
them.  It  is  no  body  of  ready-made  solutions  with  which 
he  may  be  equipped.  Such  mental  furniture  is  sure  to  be- 
come speedily  antiquated,  and  much,  even  of  the  best  of  it, 
will  probably  be  discarded  in  the  experiences  of  life.  But 
he  should  know  what  these  questions  are  and  he  should 
form  at  least  the  beginnings  of  the  habit  of  thinking  intel- 
ligently on  them.  Whatever  else  a  univrsity  does  for  a 
man,  it  should  give  him  this  training. 

Four  great  groups  of  questions,  intimately  affecting 
the  problem  of  efficient  citizenship,  may  be  cited  as  thus 
demanding  presentation  to  every  university  student. 

The  first  is  that  of  the  nature  and  genius  of  the  gov- 
ernment under  which  he  lives.  How  has  it  come  to  be  what 
it  is  f  What  superiority  has  it  to  others  1  What  are  its  out- 
standing defects  and  how  can  they  be  remedied,  or,  if  not 
capable  of  immediate  remedy,  in  w^hat  directions  should 
remedy  be  sought?  What  are  the  specific  problems  de- 
manding governmental  solution !  Above  all,  what  effect- 
ive part  can  a  busy  man,  under  the  pressing  necessities  of 
earning  his  daily  bread,  take  in  the  actual  ongoing  and  the 
more  effective  operation  of  government  in  his  community, 
the  state,  and  the  nation?  These  are  eminently  practical 
problems,  to  be  studied  not  in  the  atmosphere  of  stump- 


86  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

oratory  or  of  partisan  politics,  but  on  which  the  univer- 
sity owes  to  its  students  the  training  to  form  intelligent 
opinions  of  their  own,  which  shall  lead  in  later  life  to  ap- 
propriate action. 

The  second  great  group  of  problems  which  the  stu- 
dent should  be  led  to  face  has  to  do  with  that  industrial 
system  in  which  we  are  all  so  intimately  involved.  Are 
its  present  principles  fundamentally  sound  ?  Are  the  de- 
mands for  its  radical  alteration  which  are  forced  on  at- 
tention by  well-intentioned  and  earnest  men  really  practi- 
cable? Do  they  truly  point  the  road  to  progress,  or  are 
they  certain  to  result  in  suffering,  destruction  and  failure  ? 
How  can  better  relations  in  the  industrial  world  be 
achieved  ?  Must  its  fabric  be  remade  or  readjusted  ?  What 
should  be  the  dominant  motives  of  one  entering  the  field  of 
industry;  and  what  can  he  wisely  do  to  secure  juster  re- 
lations among  men? 

No  less  important  is  a  third  great  body  of  questions 
having  to  do  with  the  idealistic  interpretation  of  life. 
What  part  has  service  to  the  community  in  a  properly 
ordered  scheme  of  existence  ?  What  is  the  proper  balance 
of  self-seeking  and  of  a  sane  and  rational  altruism  f  What 
are  the  rightful  demands  of  philanthropy,  and  how  can 
the  claims  of  the  dependent,  defective,  and  delinquent 
members  of  the  body  politic  wisely  and  helpfully  be  met? 
What  can  the  average,  busy,  intelligent  citizen  contribute 
to  the  intellectual  upbuilding  of  his  country?  What  are 
the  value  and  the  abiding  claims  of  the  religious  interpre- 
tation of  life  ? 

A  fourth  body  of  interests,  fortunately  growing  in  the 
estimate  of  those  who  weigh  values  aright,  is  that  of  the 
aesthetic,  too  long  and  too  largely  neglected  in  American 
education.  What  is  good  literature,  and  what  are  some  of 
its  masterpieces  in  our  own  and  other  tongues?  Why 
should  art  and  architecture  claim  at  least  the  intelligent 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  87 

interest  of  the  citizen?  What  is  the  value  of  music  to  the 
community  and  what  are  the  elements  of  good  taste  in  this 
great  domain  of  human  satisfaction?  Some  direction  in 
all  these  fields  should  be  made  available;  for  none 
adds  more  to  the  abiding  intellectual  satisfaction  of  life 
both  for  individuals  and  the  community. 

Every  student,  whether  aiming  for  a  specialized 
service  to  the  community  in  engineering,  law,  farming, 
journalism,  business,  or  medicine,  should  be  brought  into 
intelligent  contact  with  these  fundamental  questions,  and 
others  like  unto  them,  which  stand  in  formative  relations 
to  the  qualities  and  usefulness  of  his  citizenship.  Some 
students,  in  particular  courses,  do  come  into  these  con- 
tacts now.  Every  modern  university  offers  courses  in 
government,  economics,  and  certain  aspects  of  philan- 
thropy, for  example,  to  those  who  specialize  in  these 
topics.  It  is  possibble  to  make  a  deep  acquaintance  with 
any  one  of  them  now,  if  one  majors  in  some  special  field. 
The  present  plea  is  that  the  university  owes  to  each  one 
of  its  students,  whatever  his  more  restricted  line  of  en- 
deavor, such  a  presentation  of  these  problems  and  oppor- 
tunities of  good  citizenship,  even  if  necessarily  superficial, 
as  will  at  least  show  to  him  the  greatness  of  the  questions 
involved  and  stimulate  his  thinking. 

It  is  evident  that  the  emphases  which  have  been  in- 
dicated will  involve  a  careful  planning  and  oftentimes  a 
readjustment  of  the  forces  of  the  university.  We  have 
grown  up  far  too  largely  a  bundle  of  separate  schools,  each 
doing  fine  work  in  a  restricted  field,  but  each  scarcely  con- 
scious of  the  scholastic  existence  of  its  colleague  groups 
for  instruction,  and  all  without  any  dominant  university 
spirit  and  sense  of  companionship  in  what,  in  spite  of  all 
its  divergencies  in  methods  and  aims,  is  in  the  larger  real- 
ities a  common  task. 

The  result  of  the  present  system  is  often  narrowing  in 


88  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

outlook.  If  the  speaker  may  illustrate  from  the  field  most 
familiar  to  him,  he  would  choose  that  of  history.  No  sub- 
ject is  more  broadly  related  to  human  progress.  Yet  histo- 
ry is  too  often  taught  as  if  it  were  solely  a  record  of  politi- 
cal development,  of  national  rivalries,  and  of  colonial  or 
racial  expansion.  Yet  there  are  few  disciplines  to  which 
history  does  not  furnish  a  facile  avenue  of  approach.  To 
law,  to  science,  to  art,  to  literature,  to  economics,  the  door- 
way through  acquaintance  with  the  steps  through  which 
development  has  jDassed,  at  least  in  broad  outline,  is  one 
readily  opened  and  leading  into  a  large  room.  Why,  if  the 
historic  treatment  is  of  value  for  the  specialist  in  these 
disciplines,  should  not  the  well-rounded  student  of  his- 
tory, in  turn,  be  profited  by  the  wider  outlook  on  human 
development  which  a  knowledge  of  something  of  those 
special  fields  of  historic  progress  would  afford  ?  The  uni- 
versity already  possesses  teachers  who  could  give  leader- 
ship in  most,  if  not  all,  of  them,  though  they  are  not  now 
reckoned  to  the  history  department,  nor  is  their  work  part 
of  its  curriculum. 

It  will  be  objected  by  many  who  would  admit  that 
such  a  training  for  citizenship  as  has  been  proposed  is 
theoretically  desirable,  that  it  is  practically  precluded  by 
the  factor  of  time.  The  demands  of  special  training  in  the 
fields,  for  example,  of  engineering  or  of  medicine  have 
grown  so  increasingly  exigent  as  absolutely  to  exclude 
other  topics,  however  inherently  valuable,  from  a  curricu- 
lum already  too  crowded.  There  is  much  practical 
truth  in  this  contention,  though  the  main  difference  be- 
tween a  university  and  a  technical  school  lies  in  the 
breadth  of  general  training  and  the  wider  outlook  on  life 
which  the  university,  with  its  larger  faculty,  its  greater 
wealth  of  discipline,  and  its  possible  extension  of  curricu- 
lum, is  able  to  afford.    This  is  an  advantage  which  the 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  89 

university  should  not  lightly  surrender,  for  it  is  a  main 
portion  of  its  birthright. 

The  suggestion  is  frequently  made  in  view  of  this 
problem  that  the  situation  could  be  materially  bettered  by 
the  introduction  of  extra-curriculum  courses,  or  even  of 
special  extra-curriculum  examinations,  in  the  important 
topics  which  have  been  specified  as  constituting  a  training 
for  citizenship.    It  certainly  makes  little  difference  how 
students  are  led  to  think  on  these  great  subjects,  as  long 
as  they  are  induced  to  think  seriously  and  intelligently. 
We  meet  here,  however,  a  formidable  difficulty  by  reason 
of   the   effects   of   what  may  be  denominated  the  great 
American  student  delusion,  that  he  can  really  learn  noth- 
ing unless  it  is  formally  taught  to  him,  or  unless  he  is 
guided  in  experiments  under  an  instructor,  or  unless  his 
reading  is  pre-digested  for  him  in  assigned  portions.  This 
is  a  peculiarly  American  failing.    The  student  in  the  Eng- 
lish university,  for  example,  makes  much  more  of  his 
own  reading,  reads  much  more  widely  than  the  average 
American,  and  feels  much  more  fully  that  he  has  some  in- 
dividual initiative  in  the  direction  and  achievement  of  his 
studies.     The  testimony  of  our  university  librarians  is 
that  students  make  far  too  scanty  use  of  the  treasures 
which  are  offered  to  them,  or,  if  they  avail  themselves  of 
the  libraries  at  all  extensively,  they  seldom  go  far  beyond 
the  ' '  required  readings ' '  assigned  by  the  instructor.    An 
experience  as  a  student  in  a  German  university  and  now 
for  many  years  as  a  teacher  in  an  American  graduate 
school,  convinces  the  speaker  that  the  American  student, 
as  compared  with  his  German  confrere,  is  far  more  depen- 
dent on  professional  guidance.    Even  in  the  preparation 
of  his  dissertation,  which  is  supposed  to  represent  his 
original  contribution  to  science,  and  is  in  a  real  sense  the 
proof  of  the  completion  of  his  apprenticeship,  he  is  far 
more  disposed  to  demand  the  leadership  of  his  instructor. 


90  EDUCATIOX.\L  SESSION 

Anything,  therefore,  that  would  tend  to  render  the  Ameri- 
can university  student  more  fully  a  self-directed  and  in- 
dependent thinker  would  be  a  real  gain :  hut  the  outroot- 
ing  of  inveterate  prejudice  and  long-established  tradition 
is  sure  to  be  at  best  a  slow  process.  Nevertheless,  it  seems 
probable  that  the  establishment  of  courses,  whether  of 
lectures,  or  of  wisely  suggested  readings  in  term  time  or 
vacation,  or,  better,  of  both,  in  these  subjects  which  have 
been  described  as  equipping  for  citizenship,  outside  the 
required  curriculum,  would  attract  many  of  our  abler  stu- 
dents, especially  if  rewards  of  a  scholastic  nature,  such  as 
honors,  were  offered  for  attainment  in  these  fields,  beyond 
the  successful  accomplishment  of  their  required  curricula. 
Many,  also,  who  did  not  pursue  these  studies  to  such  an 
extent  would  be  stimulated  to  broader  outlook  and  more 
serious  thought.  In  spite,  therefore,  of  obvious  diffi- 
culties, and  of  the  invincible  aversion  of  many  students  to 
go  a  step  beyond  what  is  required  of  them  intellectually, 
the  speaker  believes  that  the  establishment  of  extra- 
curriculum  courses,  offered  to  all  students  of  whatever 
disclipline,  would  be  a  decided  step  in  advance  in  univer- 
sity progress. 

More  important  yet  is  a  better  use  of  the  facilities 
which  our  miiversities  at  present  afford.  Our  courses  are 
too  frequently  one-sided  and  narrow  because  of  the  way 
in  which  they  have  been  added  to  existing  curricula  rather 
than  engrafted  in  a  vital  organism.  Schools  and  depart- 
ments do  their  work  as  if  they  had  nothing  to  gain  from 
allied  groups  of  studies,  sometimes  as  if  those  companion 
groups  did  not  exist.  A  larger  and  wider  use  of  univer- 
sity facilities  is  possible  in  most  of  our  institutions  of 
learning.  "We  need  to  think  more  in  terms  of  the  whole. 
"We  are  too  separated  and  too  prone  to  value  the  particular 
school  or  department  as  if  it  existed  for  itself  alone  in- 


EDUCATION-\L  RKADJUSTilEN'TS  91 

tellecttial  :  ;;    if  its  relation  to  the  university  were 

adminii?trat!  '.      '  atlier  than  scholastic. 

A  \}i  -:  American  nniversity  life 

is  there:  0. .  plan  and  interrelation  of 

studies,  in  ti.    .  _-        _         .:  al  principles  governing 
that  which  the  university  &  ■  :     '     c.    omplish  for  its  stu- 
dents, and  with  a  caref  :  '  - ;  varions  intellee- 
tnal  resonrces  which  tiie  u.  *  :*-  '"/mmand. 
For  this  pnrpose  there  she  -_. ,  -s>":h  in- 
stitntion  of  learmng  a  widely  :  =  i  -7 
sympathetic  board  on  the  aim  and  scope     : 
not  from  one  school,  bnt  embradng  tiie 
tmiversity  teaching,  which  can  look  at  th : 
whole,  and  plan  how  individnal  schools  £.  - 
may  combine  the  necessary  efficiency  of  te 
tion  with  something  of  that  breadth  of  .               ^       :_  i 
vision  which  will  render  the  normal  grad 
good  workman  in  Ms  si)ecial  field  bnt  an     .    -.-^-    .     l  ^ 
nsefnl  citizen  of  the  republic. 

Such  a  task  cannot  be  achieved  by  the  :::->-     r 
corporation  alone.     The  busy  men  who  con;    —   '   ^-^ 
bodies  have  seldom  the  time  or  the  technical  k: 
do  what  is  demanded,  though  doubtless  any  su  _  .  :^ 

and  integration  would  need  the  approval  of  tLr  i.::— i:e 
governing  authority  that  it  might  be  properly  sanctic'::^  i 
and  enforced. 

In  this  work  the  president  xrould  not  always  be  a 
partner,  but  normally  the  1:?:  Ur  in  the  decisions,  as  flie 
responsible  head  not  merel7  :  :--e  administration,  bnt  of 
the  educational  policy  of  the  university.  Probably  it 
would  be  his  function  to  initiate  such  a  survey  and  create, 
as  well  as  guide,  such  a  lx»ard.  But  many  others  must 
cooperate  who  are  engaged  in  the  actual  work  of  teach- 
ing and  immediate  administration.  The  task  of  such  a 
board  on  the  aim  and  scope  of  instruction  is  gigantic.    It 


92  EDUCATION.\L  SESSION 

requires  wisdom  of  the  highest  order,  capacity  to  lay 
aside  the  prejudices  of  conservatism,  and  a  lofty  unsel- 
fishness capable  of  putting  the  interests  of  the  whole  be- 
fore that  of  individuals  or  established  schools  or  depart- 
ments. It  demands,  above  all,  the  power  to  visualize  the 
entire  educational  situation  of  the  university,  with  its 
manifold  problems,  and  to  plan  for  the  whole  in  the  light 
of  all  the  university  has  to  offer. 

It  can  be  done;  and  in  this,  or  some  similar  way,  the 
problem  of  the  intergration  of  the  university  can  be 
solved,  and  a  real  advance  can  be  made  in  university  effi- 
ciency. 


ACADEMIC   FREEDOM   AND   SOCIAL   RESPONSI- 
BILITY 

ROBERT  E.  VINSON,  LI..D. 

President  of  the  University  oj  Texas 


Fortunately  for  the  purpose  of  this  discussion,  little 
time  need  be  spent  in  the  definition  of  terms.  The  question 
of  academic  freedom  has  been  agitated  for  more  than  a 
generation  in  America,  its  metes  and  bounds  have  been 
marked  out  and  may  now  be  said  to  be  rather  clearly 
understood  by  both  the  academic  fraternity  and  the 
general  public.  The  statement  of  President  Schurman  in 
an  address  before  the  National  Association  of  State  Uni- 
versities in  1909  is  perhaps  as  clear  an  expression  as  may 
be  found  of  the  ideal  conditions  under  which  an  education- 
al institution  may  be  expected  to  do  its  best  work.  "The 
supreme  test,"  he  says,  "is  whether  the  people  of  the  state 
will  on  the  one  hand  tax  themselves  to  support  it  (the 
state  university)  and  on  the  other  impose  upon  themselves 
a  self-denying  ordinance  to  leave  it  severly  alone,  so  that 
it  may  select  its  own  members  by  the  application  of  its 
own  intellectual  standards  and  the  members  thus  chosen 
may  be  absolutely  free  to  investigate,  to  teach,  and  to  pub- 
lish whatever  they  believe  to  be  the  truth. ' '  This  certain- 
ly puts  the  matter  in  clear  not  to  say  bald  language,  and  at 
once  squares  the  issue.  It  is  well,  however,  that  the  same 
speaker  at  once  proceeds  to  remark  that ' '  if  our  people  do 
not  already  possess  this  conception  of  a  university,  they 
must  be  educated  up  to  it,  for  a  university  can  not  flourish 
on  any  other  condition, "  f or  I  for  one  have  no  doubt  that 
when  the  case  is  presented  to  the  public  in  the  manner  re- 
ferred to,  it  will  induce  an  immediate  unfavorable  reaction 
upon  the  part  of  the  people.    They  would  unhesitatingly 


94  EDUCATIOX-AL  SESSION 

reply  that  we  are  asking  too  much.  We  want  them  to  pay 
the  bills,  to  appropriate,  as  is  true  in  some  instances,  up- 
wards of  one-half  of  the  general  revenues  of  the  state  for 
educational  purposes  and  yet  to  retain  no  control  of  these 
expenditures  nor  to  have  any  voice  in  the  decisions  with 
reference  to  persons  and  policies.  In  the  judgement  of  the 
average  man  this  would  be  to  make  the  creature  greater 
than  the  creator,  and  raises  the  issue  again  of  taxation 
without  representation. 

And  yet  I  do  not  doubt  that  there  is  general  agree- 
ment among  the  academic  people  of  America  as  to  the 
desirability  and  even  the  necessity  of  securing,  or  at  least 
approximating,  the  condition  outlined  by  Dr.  Schurman. 
*'The  doctrine  of  freedom  represents  the  high -water 
mark  of  progress."  ATe  believe  that  'Sve  were  called  for 
freedom."  We  consider  that  we  have  a  two-fold  duty  to 
discharge,  which  after  all  is  one,  to  the  truth  on  the  one 
hand  and  to  the  public  on  the  other,  and  that  we  are  in- 
hibited from  the  full  perfoiinance  of  either  just  in  propor- 
tion as  we  are  not  free  to  follow  where  the  truth  may  lead 
us.  AVe  can  not  teach  at  all  unless  we  teach  sincerely  and 
with  conviction,  nor  can  we  teach  with  such  sincerity  un- 
less we  can  go  along  with  the  truth  to  the  end.  Thus  much 
should  be  clearly  understood.  The  academic  man  must 
live  with  himself.  He  must  keep  a  conscience  void  of  of- 
fense toward  both  God  and  man.  He  does  not  surrender 
this  prerogative  when  he  enters  upon  an  academic  career 
and  fundamentally  has  the  right  to  ask  that  the  conditions 
by  which  he  is  surrounded  shall  not  militate  against  his 
own  development,  investigation,  and  expression.  Perhaps 
I  can  not  make  my  own  position  clearer  in  any  other  way 
than  to  say  that  I  give  my  hearty  endorsement  to  the 
admirable  discussion  and  sane  conclusions  embodied  in 
the  ''Report  of  the  Committee  on  Academic  Freedom  and 
Academic  Tenure"  of  the  American  Association  of  Uni- 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  95 

versity  Professors,  which  was  made  in  1915  and  published 
by  the  Association  in  tlie  year  following. 

The  publication  of  this  report  and  its  dissemination 
among  institutions,  administrative  authorities,  and 
governing  boards  throughout  the  country  has  produced 
conspicious  results  in  the  direction  of  the  attainment  of 
the  end  desired.  It  has  clarified  the  situation  from  the 
standpoint  of  motives  and  aims,  and  should  go  far  toward 
relieving  the  public  mind  with  reference  to  the  sense  of 
responsibility  which  is  the  concomitant  of  the  idea  of  free- 
dom. But  apart  from  the  service  of  this  report,  there  are 
not  lacking  indications  of  an  increasingly  favorable  atti- 
tude toward  the  universities  of  America  on  the  part  of  our 
people.  To  so  great  an  extent  is  this  true  that  I  am  tempt- 
ed to  say  that  the  fight  has  been  won.  But  if  this  be  too 
much,  may  we  at  least  not  lay  claim  to  being  in  a  fair  way 
to  win.  "The  morning  cometh."  Such  twilight  as  re- 
mains is  the  twilight  of  the  dawn  and  not  of  the  night. 
Two  factors  may  be  mentioned  here  as  being  contributory 
to  this  impression.  The  first  is  that  an  increasing  number 
of  states  are  placing  funds  in  the  hands  of  governing 
boards  of  state  universities  in  such  manner  as  to  remove 
uneasiness  with  reference  to  the  matter  of  financial 
support.  Further,  the  appointment  of  members  of  facul- 
ties and  their  advancement  in  rank,  together  with  the 
budgetary  requirements  of  departments,  are  now  in  many 
institutions  practically  in  the  hands  of  the  teaching  staff, 
determined  by  its  intellectual  standards  and  by  depart- 
mental necessities,  administrative  officers  and  boards  of 
regents  acting  largely  in  the  capacity  of  a  clearing  house. 
Even  in  those  instances  where  direct  appropriations  are 
made  by  legislatures  the  tendency  is  to  impose  fewer  con- 
ditions upon  boards  of  regents  and  to  trust  them  more 
largely  with  matters  of  detailed  expenditures  and  institu- 
tional policies.    For  we  must  not  forget  that  if  governing 


96  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

boards  have  in  the  past  interfered  with  academic  freedom, 
neither  have  they  been  free,  and  they  are  not  to  be  too 
greatly  censured  for  failing  to  confer  that  which  they 
themselves  did  not  possess.  This  increasingly  favorable 
attitude  toward  state  universities  is  true  also  with  regard 
to  gifts  being  made  by  individual  donors  to  privately  en- 
dowed institutions  and  their  governmental  conduct.  The 
university  idea  has  made  its  way  with  the  American 
people.  They  have  confidence  in  their  educational  institu- 
tions and  are  looking  to  them  for  leadership  in  a  manner 
that  is  without  parallel  in  the  history  of  education. 

The  other  factor  to  which  I  refer  is  this.  The  question 
of  freedom  bulks  large  in  the  minds  of  the  academic 
fraternity  all  the  time.  They  are  watchful  of  their  rights 
and  sensitive  even  to  the  appearance  of  infringement.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  quite  probably  true  that  the  general 
public  does  not  think  about  academic  freedom  at  all  ex- 
cept in  connection  with  a  specific  instance  of  its  alleged 
violation  or  the  supposed  overstepping  of  the  bounds  of 
propriety  by  some  university  instructor.  We  think  of  it  in 
the  abstract,  fundamentally,  from  the  standpoint  of 
rights  and  ideals.  The  public  thinks  of  it  concretely  and 
generally  contents  itself  with  occasional  ebullitions  on 
the  subject  when  ' '  another  college  professor  goes 
wrong. ' '  And  the  difficulties  we  experience  are  not  due  so 
much  to  a  fundamental  disagreement  on  the  abstract 
question,  which  probably  does  not  exist,  but  quite  largely 
to  the  application  of  the  ideal  to  a  specified  case. 

Now  if  these  things  are  true  or  partly  true,  the  ques- 
tion of  freedom  both  for  ourselves  and  for  our  institutions 
comes  back  in  the  main  to  us.  With  the  university  idea 
fixed  in  the  consciousness  of  the  American  people  as  a 
good  thing,  with  the  constant  pressure  for  freedom  as 
necessary  to  the  best  practical  outworking  of  the  idea, 
with  the  presumed  agreement  in  the  fundamental  correct- 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  97 

ness  of  this  notion,  together  with  a  showing  that  we  are 
sensible  of  the  responsibility  which  accompanies  it,  surely 
we  should  not  be  hopeless  of  evolving  a  plan  for  its  appli- 
cation to  individual  instances.  And  we  may  anticipate 
that  the  correct  solution  of  each  of  these  and  the  public 
discussion  incident  thereto  will  but  serve  as  steps  in  the 
educational  process  by  which  the  public  will  come  up  to 
our  ground. 

Modern  education  impinges  upon  life  in  an  altogether 
unprecedented  fashion.  There  was  a  time  when  the  ques- 
tion of  academic  freedom  was  of  little  or  no  concern.  Col- 
lege curricula  dealt  with  matters  which  were  looked  upon 
as  simple  classroom  tasks;  their  ends  were  predetermin- 
ed, they  were  kept  in  safe  and  sane  bounds,  and  it  made 
little  difference  either  within  or  without  the  institution 
just  what  conclusions  were  reached.  Then  came  the  de- 
velopment of  the  physical  sciences,  the  erection  of  labora- 
tories, the  fight  for  a  place  among  the  older  disciplines,  the 
injection  of  the  method  of  investigation  and  the  spread 
of  the  curriculum  to  cover  subjects  whose  introduction  re- 
quired the  modification  of  educational  ideas  and  ideals  to 
the  extent  of  a  revolution.  The  sweep  of  this  thing  has 
been  tremendous.  It  has  gone  forward  much  more  rapidly 
than  has  the  public  opinion,  and  to  me  the  surprising 
thing  is  not  that  some  friction  has  been  generated,  but 
that  we  have  had  so  little  of  it.  The  relation  of  the  modern 
university  to  life  is  of  the  most  intimate  character.  I  have 
sometimes  been  led  to  wonder  whether  educational  leaders 
themselves  have  been  as  aware  of  this  even  as  the  general 
public,  or,  in  other  words,  are  we  not  after  all  discharging 
a  function  which  is  greater  than  we  have  been  willing  to 
express?  For  much  of  this  enlargement  has  been  forced 
upon  our  institutions  from  without,  and  they  have  grown 
by  external  pressure  rather  than  by  internal  development. 
It  would  be  interesting  to  estimate  how  much  of  this  is  due 


98  EDUCATIOX.U  SESSION 

to  the  popular  demand  for  practical  training  and  also  how 
much  of  the  friction  between  the  college  and  the  public  has 
been  generated  out  of  the  effort  of  the  college  to  meet  this 
requirement.  AYe  ordinarily  define  the  function  of  an  aca- 
demic institution  to  be  threefold:  to  promote  inquiry 
and  advance  the  sum  of  human  knowledge;  to  provide 
general  instruction  for  students;  and  to  develop  experts 
for  various  branches  of  the  public  service.  But  does  this 
fully  express  the  function  of  a  university?  Are  we  not 
doing  more  than  this?  The  manufacturing  concern  not 
only  makes  goods  but  it  also  establishes  a  market  and 
carries  a  force  of  salesmen.  And  the  point  I  am  making  is 
that  our  market  is  no  longer  and  can  be  no  longer  only  the 
classroom  and  the  students  who  are  in  residence,  but  that 
largely  without  our  choice  the  public  has  widened  our 
market  and  that  we  have  not  sufficiently  adjusted  ourselves 
to  its  requirements  nor  developed  the  practice  of  salesman- 
ship which  these  new  conditions  demand.  Or,  to  return  to 
our  own  phraseology,  we  need  to  apply  the  principle  of  a 
pedagogy  to  the  matter  of  communicating  our  discoveries 
to  the  general  public.  History  will  probably  substantiate 
the  statement  that  the  truth  suffers  as  often  from  the 
foolishness  of  its  friends  as  from  the  attacks  of  its 
enemies.  It  is  not  enough  to  discover  truth.  It  must  be 
communicated.  We  must  lead  the  public  as  far  as  possible 
to  the  acceptance  of  the  results  of  our  investigations,  not 
only  because  this  is  the  American  theory,  but  further  be- 
cause the  truth  itself  and  our  best  interests  demand  it. 
It  is  utterly  idle  to  talk  about  constructing  and  operating 
a  great  modern  university  without  carrying  along  with  it 
the  intelligent  opinion  of  the  country.  We  must  grow 
together.  The  university  must  keep  in  advance,  but  it 
must  not  go  so  far  in  advance  as  to  discourage.  The 
American  university  is  not  an  abstract  independent 
thing.     It  is  the  flower  and  fruit  of  our  national  life, 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  99 

growing  up  out  of  the  mass  as  one  of  the  finest  forms  of 
its  expression,  but  inevitably  like  that  from  which  it 
springs.  Our  forum  is  now  the  state  and  the  nation,  and 
we  shall  get  farther  and  go  faster  by  laying  less  propor- 
tionate emphasis  upon  our  right  to  freedom  and  more  up- 
on the  privilege  which  we  enjoy  of  carrying  truth  to  so 
great  an  audience  and  building  up  the  intellectual 
strength  of  a  whole  people. 

The  difficulties  which  we  encounter  are  seldom  if 
ever  met  in  the  field  of  the  natural  and  exact  sciences. 
Those  matters  which  are  capable  of  demonstration  and 
those  which  require  the  adoption  of  working  hypotheses 
are  regarded  as  but  necessary  steps  in  the  direction  of 
discovery  and  create  little  concern  even  when  they  are 
subversive  of  long  established  theories  and  beliefs.  But 
when  we  enter  the  realm  of  the  social  sciences  and  deal 
with  the  forms  and  practices  of  society,  or  with  questions 
of  economics  or  government  or  religion  and  philosophy, 
it  is  here  that  we  find  the  sore  spots,  for  we  are  in  the 
region  of  opinion  and  belief  in  the  place  where  the  shock 
of  contrariety  is  a  necessary  element  in  the  formulation 
of  correct  conclusions.  On  both  sides  there  is  need  of 
moderation  and  care.  The  academic  man  needs  a  buffer 
to  catch  the  blow  until  the  public  can  have  time  to  give 
calm  consideration  to  the  opinions  expressed.  The  people 
need  to  be  reminded  of  the  beneficent  movements  which 
have  been  fathered  and  fostered  by  universities  and  uni- 
versity men,  of  truth  which  has  been  discovered  and  an- 
nounced and  defended  at  peril  of  life  and  has  gained  as- 
cendency only  after  its  discoverer  has  paid  the  supreme 
penalty  of  his  devotion  and  clear-headedness.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  professor  knows  or  should  know  that 
such  great  crises  as  demand  the  sacrifice  of  life  for 
opinion  have  been  rare  and  that  even  some  of  them  might 
have  been  avoided  if  they  had  been  handled  differently. 


100  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

There  is  no  need  to  insist  upon  sacrifice.  If  the  opinion 
has  been  formed  by  one  who  is  competent  in  his  field,  if 
the  methods  have  been  those  of  scientific  scholarship,  if 
proper  respect  is  paid  to  existing  theories  and  beliefs,  if 
the  steps  in  the  process  are  visible  and  the  announcement 
is  free  from  elements  that  are  bizarre  and  propagandist 
in  nature,  such  expression  is  then  worthy  of  the  confidence 
of  right-thinking  men,  and  the  institution  which  merits 
its  own  respect  will  protect  such  men  in  the  enjoyment  of 
their  freedom.  For  there  is  no'  antinomianism  here. 
Society  is  defended  in  such  an  instance  not  by  an  out- 
ward law  but  by  an  inward  spirit,  by  the  instinct  of  the 
scholar  and  the  character  of  the  searcher  for  truth.  And 
is  should  be  remembered  here  that  we  are  dealing  with 
a  public  which  ought  to  be  peculiarly  amenable  to  accep- 
tance of  this  situation.  This  thing  that  we  are  endeavor- 
ing to  do  in  America  is  a  tremendous  thing.  Our  educa- 
tional system  is  founded  upon  the  notion  that  we  can  lift 
a  whole  people  so  that  each  individual  may  take  and  ex- 
press intelligent  interest  in  public  concerns.  In  so  far  as 
this  has  been  done  we  need  not  expect  and  do  not  desire 
that  the  opinions  of  college  men  shall  go  unquestioned  by 
the  public  any  more  than  we  permit  them  to  go  undisput- 
ed by  our  students.  Public  opinion  should  in  our  theory 
be  intelligent  opinion,  well  worth  listening  to,  and  it 
should  be  no  longer  possible  to  justify  the  Pharisaic  at- 
titude. The  various  groups  into  which  the  citizenry  of 
this  nation  are  now  organized  are  intelligent  groups. 
They  have  their  programs,  they  have  studied  the  ques- 
tions relating  to  their  occupations  and  interests  with 
such  thoroughness  as  to  have  among  them  men  who  may 
justly  claim  to  be  experts.  They  have  been  driven  by  the 
law  of  self-preservation.  Farmers,  merchants,  bankers, 
laboring-men  and  the  rest  know  very  well  where  they  are, 
and  it  is  next  to  impossible  for  a  university  man  to  ex- 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  101 

press  an  opinion  to-day  in  the  fields  of  sociology,  govern- 
ment or  economics  without  having  to  run  the  gamut  of 
the  really  intelligent  criticism  of  those  who  are  interest- 
ed both  theoretically  and  practically  in  the  issue  advocat- 
ed. We  may,  therefore,  expect  that  the  future  will  hold 
even  more  occasions  for  friction  than  has  been  true  in  the 
past,  for  in  so  far  as  the  positions  occupied  by  various 
interests  are  selfish  and  inimical  to  the  public  good,  they 
necessarily  will  fall  under  the  condemnation  of  the  col- 
lege man,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  pocket 
nerve  is  becoming  incapable  of  conveying  painful  im- 
pressions. 

We  are,  therefore,  placed  in  a  situation  where  two 
things  are  to  be  secured~the  freedom  of  the  teacher  and 
the  fulfillment  of  the  duty  of  the  university  to  the  public. 
I  offer  two  suggestions  of  means  which  may  contribute  in 
a  measure  toward  these  ends.  First,  we  must  close  the 
growing  gap  between  the  teachers  and  the  administrative 
officers  and  governing  boards  of  our  institutions.  If  the 
officers  and  boards  of  regents  are  to  participate  in  the 
preservation  and  advancement  of  the  freedom  of  the  pro- 
fessors, they  on  their  part  have  the  right  to  ask  that 
every  faculty  member  shall  carry  on  his  teaching,  investi- 
gation, and  promulgation  of  opinions  in  the  light  of  the 
interest  of  the  institution  and  to  the  end  that  he  shall  in 
his  place  contribute  his  share  to  the  service  which  the  uni- 
versity is  endeavoring  to  render  to  the  public,  and  to  do 
this  in  due  proportion.  This  does  not  mean  the  imposi- 
tion of  rules  and  regulations,  but  rather  refers  to  the 
atmosphere  in  which  his  work  is  to  be  done-that  of  loyal- 
ty and  devotion  to  the  university,  the  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  teachers,  administrative  officers  and  the  control- 
ling board  are  fundamentally  bound  to  the  performance 
of  a  common  task.    Unless  we  can  have  this  sort  of  in- 


102  EDUCATION.\L  SESSION 

stitutional  solidarity,  neither  of  the  things  we  so  much 

desire  can  be  secured. 

Second,  granting  this,  the  administrative  officers  and 
the  board  of  regents  should  on  their  part  guarantee  to  the 
teacher  full  freedom  to  teach,  to  investigate,  and  to  pub- 
lish, and  in  my  judgment  without  further  limitation,  for 
it  is  quite  impossible  to  handle  a  spiritual  matter  by  fixed 
rules  and  regulations,  or  to  determine  in  advance  the 
degrees  to  which  it  may  proceed.  "We  can  deal  with  in- 
dividual instances  of  its  violation  after  the  fact  and  in  the 
light  of  these  principles,  with  the  further  condition  that 
judgment  shall  first  be  given  by  those  most  immediately 
concerned  in  the  preservation  of  freedom,  the  colleagues 
of  the  offender.  This  power  is  intimately  associated  with 
the  others  which  have  already  been  conferred  upon  facul- 
ties. It  seems  to  be  the  direction  of  logical  development, 
and  once  inserted  in  the  regulations  of  the  controlling 
boards  and  kept  alive  it  should  go  far  toward  securing  ac- 
curate judgments  and  furnishing  the  time  necessary  for 
deliberate  conclusions. 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  IN  TRAINING 
FOR  CITIZENSHIP 

roscoe;  pound,  ph.d.,  i.i,.d. 
Dean  of  the  Law  School,  Harvard  University 


That  any  man  potentially  can  be  or  do  anything  and 
that  the  way  to  learn  to  be  or  do  it  is  practical  apprentice- 
ship was  a  traditional  Anglo-American  idea.  We  were 
wont  to  think  little  of  theoretical  training  for  practical 
activities.  Fifty  years  ago  the  lawyer  came  to  the  bar  by 
way  of  a  lawyer's  office;  the  medical  student  read  in  a 
physician's  office;  the  teacher  simply  went  out  and  taught; 
the  would-be  engineer  served  an  apprenticeship  to  engi- 
neers ;  the  future  editor  began  to  learn  his  calling  as  a  re- 
porter; the  future  business  man  began  as  an  office  boy  and 
the  future  manufacturer  as  a  hewer  of  wood  and  drawer  of 
water  in  the  mill.  Then,  certainly,  men  would  have  said 
that  the  best  training  for  citizenship  was  experience  of  the 
exercise  of  its  functions  and  that  universal  suffrage  and 
annual  elections  were  sufficient  for  that  purpose.  To-day 
we  have  come  to  think  otherwise.  The  majority  of  the 
legal  profession  come  from  law  schools  of  some  sort  or 
other;  all  physicians  must  have  been  trained  in  a  stand- 
ard medical  school;  druggists  come  from  schools  of 
pharmacy;  teachers  must  have  attended  normal  schools 
or  teachers '  colleges ;  engineers  graduate  from  schools  of 
engineering,  and  the  success  of  schools  of  journalism  and 
schools  of  business  administration  in  attracting  large 
numbers  of  students  indicates  that  a  wide  extension  of 
academic  vocational  instruction  is  before  us.  In  large 
part  this  change  in  our  ideas  of  professional  training  has 
been  called  for  by  the  conditions  of  twentieth-century  life 


104  EDUCATIOX.\L  SESSION 

and  is  eminently  desirable.    But  there  are  elements  in  our 
life  that  make  for  exaggeration  of  its  applications. 

When  any  new  interest  becomes  important  in  poli- 
tics, the  feeling  arises  at  once  that  it  must  have  a  rep- 
resentative in  the  cabinet,  the  outward  sign  that  it  has 
achieved  a  place  in  the  political  sun.  When  anything 
which  is  conceivably  teachable  becomes  important  in  the 
eyes  of  a  considerable  part  of  the  community  for  the  time 
being,  a  place  must  be  found  for  it  in  the  academic  curric- 
ulum; the  course,  or  better  still  the  chair,  testifies  to 
authoritative  recognition  of  its  importance.  In  part  this 
faith  in  courses  and  curricula  grows  out  of  the  desire  of 
the  individual  citizen  to  see  the  work  of  his  hands  in  pub- 
lic institutions,  which  is  a  by-product  of  democracy.  If  he 
or  his  forbears  come  of  some  stock  which  poured  immi- 
grants into  America  in  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  a  chair  of  his  ancestral  tongue  in  the  state  uni- 
versity at  the  instance  of  a  society  of  which  he  was  a  pro- 
moter is  a  tangible  evidence  of  the  citizen's  public  spirit 
and  political  power.  In  such  cases  the  relation  of  the 
chair  to  the  general  work  of  education  or  to  general  cul- 
ture is  quite  immaterial,  and  if  Greek  or  Sanskirt  has  to 
walk  the  plank,  there  are  no  organizations  of  citizens 
whose  pride  will  be  in  any  wise  affected.  In  part,  again, 
this  faith  is  a  phase  of  the  Anglo-American  belief  in 
machinery  of  which  Matthew  Arnold  had  so  much  to  tell 
us.  The  mere  mechanism  of  courses  and  lectures  is  relied 
on  as  confidently  as  is  the  mechanism  of  laws  and  consti- 
tutions. In  part,  also,  this  faith  in  courses  and  curricula 
goes  with  that  mode  of  thinking  about  teaching  against 
which  Socrates  protested.  It  looks  upon  the  student  mind 
as  an  empty  vessel  requiring  to  be  filled  with  ready-made 
materials  from  without;  as  a  blank  sheet  upon  which  the 
teacher  is  to  write  something  wholly  outside  of  the  stu- 
dent, whose  function  is  purely  receptive  or  passive.  Such 
belief  is  strong  in  the  business  man  of  to-day,  as  it  was 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  105 

strong  ill  the  everyday  Athenian  citizen  of  Socrates' 
time.  And  as  men  of  business  are  the  dominant  force  for 
the  time  being  in  our  social  and  national  life,  we  look  to 
them  for  our  ideas  on  many  things  besides  business,  on 
the  same  principle  of  homage  to  material  power  or  suc- 
cess on  which  the  ancients  deified  their  rulers.  Hence,  in 
spite  of  ourselves,  we  of  the  universities  seem  to  be  ac- 
quiescing in  the  business  man's  idea,  sound  enough,  if 
you  grant  his  premises,  that  whatever  appears  to  be  need- 
ed in  society  for  the  time  being  must  be  taught,  and,  if 
taught,  should  of  course  be  taught  on  the  business  prin- 
ciple of  securing  the  best  external  matter  to  fill  the 
cranial  void  or  the  best  writing  upon  the  mental  blank 
sheet  at  the  lowest  cost.  Naturally  also  the  business  man 
wants  a  guarantee  of  the  quality.  The  external  matter 
must  be  inspected,  must  come  from  a  good  known  com- 
mercial source,  and  the  pedagogue  who  inserts  it  must 
have  the  proper  Ph.D.  label  or  its  equivalent  from  a 
respectable  purveyor  of  educational  materials. 

If,  because  the  activities  of  qualified  Americans  of 
all  sorts  have  created  a  consciousness  of  kind  in  some 
Anglo-Americans,  who  hope  to  see  our  educational  sys- 
tem turn  our  whole  population  into  pinchbeck  English- 
men, or  because  the  duties  and  obligations  of  citizenship 
have  been  much  in  our  eyes  of  late,  or  because  the  busi- 
ness men  of  the  country  feel  that  the  stability  of  our 
economic  institutions  demands  that  a  new  and  improved 
and  better  guaranteed  external  educational  material  be 
inserted  in  the  cranial  vacant  spaces  of  the  rising  genera- 
tion,— if  for  such  reasons  or  any  of  them  it  is  thought  that 
we  must  have  schools  of  citizenship  or  courses  in  citizen- 
ship or  formal  education  in  citizenship,  and  the  question 
is,  where  is  the  university  to  stand  in  the  formal  hier- 
archy of  courses  in  the  subject,  then,  I  say,  the  university 
is  best  advised  to  let  the  thing  alone.    It  has  been  pushed 


106  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

into  doing  too  much  of  this  sort  already.  Indeed  those  who 
picture  training  for  citizenship  of  this  sort,  if  they  suc- 
ceed in  realizing  their  picture,  have  a  painful  disillusion- 
ment in  prospect.  For  the  popular  belief  in  the  efficacy  of 
courses  and  of  formal  instruction  has  brought  about  an 
unhappy  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  student.  He  is  ex- 
amined in  the  course  by  the  instructor  who  gave  it,  and 
hence  is  examined  in  the  content  of  the  course.  Accord- 
ingly he  reasons  thus :  I  am  not  bound  to  know  anything 
of  the  subject  of  the  course  that  was  not  in  its  content 
as  given;  I  am  not  bound  to  know  anything  about  any- 
thing unless  I  have  had  a  course  in  it  to  fill  my  cranial 
void  with  the  material  upon  that  subject,  nor  may  I 
reasonably  be  expected  to  do  anj^thing  unless  I  have  been 
taught  to  do  it  in  a  formal  course.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
public  reasons  thus :  He  has  had  a  course  in  this  or  that, 
therefore  he  knows  it ;  he  may  be  relied  upon  as  fully  com- 
petent in  this  or  that  field  because  he  has  formal  training 
therein  and  his  mental  blank  sheet  has  been  competently 
filled  out  with  the  requisite  facts  and  figures.  A  genera- 
tion of  students  formally  educated  in  citizenship  and 
turned  out  with  the  idea  that  they  were  bound  to  know 
or  to  think  nothing  with  respect  to  the  duties  of  a 
civilized  man  in  a  civilized  society  beyond  the  content  of 
the  formal  course  in  which  they  were  examined — a  gene- 
ration turned  out  thus  to  live  with  a  public  relying  upon 
them  as  fully  competent  to  the  obligations  of  citizenship 
because  they  held  diplomas  as  bachelors  of  political 
science  in  citizenship,  would  achieve  more  for  the  undo- 
ing of  academic  education  than  a  host  of  barbarian  in- 
vaders. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  when  we  speak  of  training  for 
citizenship  we  mean  that  every  man  finds  himself  living 
with  his  felloAvmen  in  a  condition  of  social  interdepen- 
dence in  civilized  and  politically  organized  society,  and 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  107 

that  the  bringing  up  of  men  to  live  in  that  condition  so 
as  to  make  the  most  of  its  possibilities  both  for  him  and 
for  them  is  a  social  service  of  the  first  order  in  which  a 
university  as  an  important  social  institution  may  take 
an  important  part, — if  this  is  meant,  then  there  is  another 
story.  For  nothing  is  less  adapted  to  such  training  than 
to  raise  up  the  youth  to  rely  wholly  upon  formal  courses ; 
to  create  in  them  the  belief,  conscious  or  subconscious, 
that  pursuit  of  such  a  course  of  itself  may  give  mastery 
of  any  subject  or  a  belief  that  no  one  is  to  be  held  or  may 
be  assumed  to  know  a  subject  or  about  a  subject  unless  he 
has  pursued  such  a  course,  and  that  when  he  has  pursued 
one,  he  may  keep  within  the  limits  thereof  with  a  con- 
sciousness that  his  head  has  been  properly  filled  with  the 
all-sufficing  materials. 

Looking  at  the  matter  in  this  way,  we  must  ask  our- 
selves at  the  outset  what  we  mean  by  citizenship  in  the 
present  connection.  In  a  university  we  are  thinking  of 
more  than  the  moment;  we  are  dealing  with  universals 
and  are  endeavoring  to  look  at  things  sub  specie  aeterni- 
tatis.  Yet  it  is  often  helpful  to  put  our  thoughts  in  terms 
of  the  moment,  and  as  a  helpful  suggestion,  not  as  a  dog- 
matic statement  or  as  the  one  true  conception,  I  ask  you 
for  a  moment  to  interpret  our  question  in  terms  of  engin- 
eering. Let  us  for  the  moment  think  of  the  state,  not 
legally  as  a  relation  created  by  a  social  compact,  nor 
metaphysically  as  the  personified  general  will,  nor  bio- 
logically as  a  huge  super-organism,  but  functionally  as 
the  chiefest  of  human  agencies  by  which  human  society 
achieves  its  tasks  of  social  engineering — its  tasks  of  con- 
serving the  goods  of  existence  and  the  values  of  civiliza- 
tion, of  eliminating  waste  and  friction  in  human  enjoy- 
ment of  them,  and  in  adjusting  conflicting  human  claims 
so  as  to  bring  about  the  widest  possible  satisfaction  with 
the  least  friction  and  the  least  waste.    The  state  is  by  no 


108  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

means  the  sole  of  these  agencies.  Eeligious  organizations, 
fraternal    organizations,    professional    and    vocational 
organizations,  social  and  benevolent  organizations  and 
even  business  organizations  do  a  large  part.    The  state  is 
only  the  chiefest  and  most  enduring  and  most  efficacious 
of  these  agencies  of  social  engineering.    In  that  sense  we 
might  think  of  it,  not  as  a  relation  created  by  contract, 
but  as  a  great  public  service  company,  in  which  we  are 
all  stockholders  and  of  which  we  are  all  patrons, —  a  pub- 
lic service  company  bomid  from  the  nature  of  its  under- 
taking to  furnish  a  reasonable  service  to  all  alike  at 
reasonable  rates  and  without  discrimination  and  to  pro- 
vide reasonable  incidental  service  and  facilities.    Such  a 
picture  is  useful  because  if  we  are  to  think  of  citizenship 
under  the  aspect  of  eternity,  we  may  think  of  nothing  less 
than  the  individual  with  reference  to  the  end  of  social 
engineering  as  distinct  from  the  relation  of  the  individual 
to  the  means  of  such  engineering  in  the  time  or  place. 
More  than  once  it  has  happened  that  some  agency  of 
social  engineering,  doing,  it  may  be,  excellent  work  with- 
in its  sphere,  has  assumed  to  identify  itself  with  the  end 
and  to  think  if  itself  as  involving  the  whole.    Organized 
religion  long  made  this  claim.  Organized  political  society 
has  made  it  more  than  once.    Some  of  us  may  think  that 
some  private  associations  recently  showed  signs  of  as- 
serting a  like  claim.    If  we  look  to  the  end,  what  we  must 
have  in  mind  is  a  civilized  man  in  a  civilized  society, 
charged  with  the  duty  of  maintaining,  developing  and 
transmitting  civilization.     To  a  great  extent,  no  doubt, 
this  duty  will  be  exercised  through  political  activity  in 
politically  organized  society.     But  organized  political 
activity  is  but  a  means  and  is  no  more  the  whole  of  civili- 
zation than  organized  religious  activity  or  organized 
business  activity  or  organized  labor. 

By  citizenship,  then,  we  must  mean  something  wider 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  109 

and  deeper  than  effective  participation  in  political  activ- 
ity in  politically  organized  society.    Our  use  of  the  term 
dates  from  the  time  when  political  organizations  had 
waged  a  hard  contest  with  religious  organization  for  the 
hegemony  in  social  control  and  had  come  to  be  thought 
of  as  succeeding  to  the  paramount  and  universal  claims  of 
the  medieval  church.    But  even  then  we  meant  more  and 
the  political  interpretation  implied  in  our  common  speech 
must  be  taken  as  an  interpretation  of  society  and  of  civili- 
zation and  not  as  committing  us  to  an  absolute  identifica- 
tion of  these  with  the  political  machinery  for  the  time 
being.    Hence  our  citizen  must  be  something  more  than  a 
docile,  orderly  person,  who  scrupulously  keeps  the  laws, 
does  not  evade  jury  service,  studies  the  sample  ballots 
and  votes  intelligently  on  election  day,  pays  his  taxes  and 
reads  the  best  current  expositions  of  public  affairs.    Such 
persons  are  valuable  members  of  a  political  community, 
but  our  Savior  made  some  harsh  observations  as  to  their 
ultimate  usefulness,  if  they  but  pay  tithes  of  mint,  anise 
and  cummin  and  neglect  the  weightier  matters  of  a  law 
that  does  not  come  from  the  state.    In  a  stabilized  eco- 
nomic society  this  purely  political  conception  of  the  citi- 
zen is  likely  to  imply  the  ideal  of  the  Greek  writers  upon 
politics,— a  state  where  every  one  was  to  be  held  per- 
manently and  quietly  in  the  groove  for  which  he  was  best 
fitted,  doing  there  the  work  he  could  best  do,  the  best  that 
he  could  do  it,— or  else  a  political  pharisaism  that  leads 
equally  to  social  and  cultural  decay. 

If  we  are  to  think  of  citizenship  with  reference  to  its 
ends,  we  must  take  a  brief  survey  of  social  ideals.  What, 
then,  is  the  end  of  the  social  engineering  of  which  the 
state  is  the  chief  est  agency?  One  end,  which  men  have 
always  seen,  is  to  maintain  peace  and  order,  postulates  of 
the  most  elementary  economic  or  political  or  cultural  ad- 
vancement. Primitive  man  may  give  this  a  religious  turn. 


110  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

He  may  think  of  the  end  as  keeping  the  community  in  the 
good  graces  of  the  gods,  by  casting  out  the  impious  who 
offend  the  gods,  to  the  end  that  society  be  not  shaken  by 
natural  disturbances,  the  result  of  divine  wrath.    In  a 
later  development  of  thought,  men  have  conceived  of  the 
end  as  the  maintainance  of  an  ideal  form  of  the  social 
status  quo  whereby  men  might  make  of  it  the  best  of 
which  it  is  capable.  Such  was  the  Greek  conception.  From 
the  Eeformation  to  the  nineteenth  centuiy,  men  came 
more  and  more  to  hold  that  the  end  was  to  bring  about  a 
maximum  of  individual  self  assertion.     To-day,  as  the 
role  played  by  the  idea  of  abstract  liberty  in  the  political 
philosophy  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  being  taken  by 
the  idea  of  civilization  in  some  of  the  many  rising  forms 
of  social  philosophy,  it  is  coming  to  be  thought  of  as  a 
making  the  most  of  human  nature  and  of  external  nature 
by  our  joint  and  several  effort  in  order  that  humanity  in 
our  generation  may  achieve  the  best  of  which  it  is  capable 
and  transmit  that  best  as   something  upon  which  the 
future  may  build  something  yet  better. 

There  is  truth  in  each  of  these  conceptions.  Ordered 
effort  is  a  presupposition  of  civilization.  To  eliminate 
friction  and  prevent  waste  in  human  use  and  enjoyment 
of  the  goods  of  existence,  we  must  first  of  all  uphold  the 
general  security.  This  is  a  chief  function  of  law,  and  law 
is  the  chief  reliance  of  the  state.  Again  there  may  be  a 
fatal  waste  of  social  resources  if  the  energies  of  the  mass 
of  mankind  are  misdirected,  if  large  numbers  of  men  are 
out  of  the  place  for  which  their  physique  or  character  or 
aptitudes  or  training  best  fit  them.  It  has  been  said  that 
*' human  civilization  is  only  conceivable  if  there  is  a  sys- 
tem among  mankind  that  assigns  each  man  his  post  and 
sets  him  his  task  and  takes  care  that  existing  values  are 
protected  and  the  creation  of  new  ones  is  furthered." 
Likewise  the  Scripture  tells  us:  ''And  thou  shalt  teach 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  HI 

them  ordinances  and  laws  and  shalt  show  them  the  way 
in  which  they  must  walk  and  the  work  that  they  must 
do."  Such  a  system  may  be  customary  or  forcible  or 
religious  or  political  or  economic  or  composite.  We  must 
COT  .cede  to  the  Greek  thinkers  that  there  is  always  some 
such  system  which  eventually  and  on  the  whole  puts  men 
in  the  place  where  there  will  be  the  least  friction  and  the 
least  waste.  I  need  not  spend  words  in  arguing  for  the 
truth  in  the  third  conception.  We  were  all  trained  to 
believe  in  it  and  even  those  who  have  progressed  to  a 
wider  view  mus^  concede  that  individual  spontaneous 
initiative  and  free  self-assertion  is  the  great  agency  of 
economic  and  political  and  cultural  progress. 

There  has  been  a  tendency  toward  an  economic  version 
of  the  fourth  conception,  a  tendency  to  interpret  it  strict- 
ly in  terms  of  a  maximum  satisfaction  of  human  wants. 
But  much  depends  upon  emphasis  in  such  an  interpreta- 
tion; upon  whether  and  how  far  we  thinl  of  actual  wants 
or  potential  wants,  of  immediate  wants  or  ultimate  wants, 
of  what  men  do  consciously  want  or  what  they  ought  to 
want.  In  a  university  I  need  not  argue  for  the  moral 
aspect  of  this  matter;  I  need  not  argue  that  our  thinking 
must  involve  selection  from  among  these  wants,  valuing 
of  wants,  and  choice  of  the  best,  of  the  highest, — of  those 
which  we  find  tend  to  carry  forward  human  powers  and 
human  control  of  nature  to  the  most  and  best  of  which 
they  are  capable. 

Such  being  our  view  of  the  nature  and  ends  of 
citizenship,  what  may  the  university  do  towards  realiz- 
ing the  ideal  of  citizenship,  and  furthering  its  ends?  If 
we  think  of  society  in  terms  of  the  first  conception  only, 
as  identified  with  the  legal  order,  undoubtedly  the  univer- 
sity may  train  the  youth  in  critical,  systematic  thinking, 
so  that  he  will  see  for  himself  the  fundamental  role  of 
order.     Through  study  of  history,  of  economics  and  of 


112  EDUCATIOX.^L  SESSION 

politics,  it  may  convince  him  of  the  paramount  impor- 
tance of  the  general  security  in  civilized  society.  If  we 
think  of  society  in  terms  of  the  second  conception,  a  uni- 
versity may  ascertain  and  develop  the  aptitudes  of  those 
who  are  fitted  for  the  higher  intellectual  work  of  society, 
may  enable  them,  through  study  of  recorded  human  ex- 
perience, to  convince  themselves  of  the  necessity  of  syste- 
matic and  intelligent  ordering  of  human  activities  if 
there  is  to  be  human  civilization,  and  to  convince  them- 
selves of  the  relation  of  civilization  so  ordered  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  individual.  It  may  lead  them  to  seek  an 
ideal  of  the  social  order  and  to  seek  intelligently  how  to 
direct  the  existing  order  toward  that  ideal  with  the  least 
friction  and  the  least  waste.  If  we  think  of  society  in 
terms  of  the  third  conception,  the  university  may  train 
the  individuals  who  are  able  to  take  advantage  of  its 
opportunities  so  that  they  may  realize  the  whole  of  the 
powers  which  nature  has  given  them  and  utilize  them  to 
the  utmost.  Such  was  the  American  academic  ideal  of 
the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century-.  Its  watchword 
was  opportunity.  It  expected  the  student  to  begin  the 
struggle  for  existence  through  competitive  self-assertion 
already  in  the  university.  It  offered  him  the  widest 
possible  program  of  electives.  It  said  to  him,* 'If  it  pleases 
you  to  do  so,  come  and  select  from  these  manifold  oppor- 
tunities in  your  own  way  and  at  your  own  risk,  make  the 
most  or  the  least  of  them  as  you  choose  (provided  your 
least  is  not  subversive  of  academic  discipline  so  as  to  in- 
terfere with  the  like  opportunities  of  others)  and  thus 
prepare  yourself  to  do  your  part  in  the  struggle  of  con- 
flicting wills  in  a  world  where  the  end  of  society  is  the 
utmost  possible  self-assertion  by  each  consistently  with 
seK-assertion  by  all. ' ' 

We  must  not  forget  that  in  the  relatively  homogene- 
ous community  of  the  time,  still  actually  or  in  immediate 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  113 

reminiscence  predominently  agricultural  and  pioneer, 
such  a  system  involved  a  real  training  for  citizenship.  In 
spite  of  its  obvious  unsocial  features,  as  things  were  then 
it  made  most  of  those  who  really  felt  its  influence  socially 
useful,  since  the  restless  activity  of  the  individual  is  a 
prime  agency  of  progress,  and  at  that  time  the  manifold 
outlets  for  such  activity  minimized  friction  and  waste. 
Such  a  time  could  wtU  be  a  golden  age  of  complacent 
liberalism.  Not  unnaturally  we  are  less  satisfied  with  that 
ideal  and  the  system  that  sought  to  realize  it,  when  ap- 
plied to  the  crowded  urban,  industrial,  heterogeneous 
America  of  to-day,  than  when  applied  in  the  America  of 
vast  unoccupied  public  domain,  unexploited  natural  re- 
sources, agricultural  interests  and  pioneer  ideas,  which 
obtained  in  the  seventies  and  eighties  of  the  last  century. 
If  we  think  of  society  in  terms  of  the  fourth  concep- 
tion, that  conception  includes  much  of  each  of  the  others, 
and  the  social  possibilities  of  the  university  are  still  in 
greats  part  the  same.  All  that  has  just  been  suggested 
may  be  done  and  much  beside.  The  university  may  still 
lead  the  student  to  convince  himself  of  the  fundamental 
importance  of  social  order.  It  may  still  help  him  to  find 
his  aptitudes,  help  him  find  how  to  use  them,  and  convince 
him  of  the  waste  involved  in  futile  attempts  to  be  useful 
in  the  wrong  walk  of  life  and  the  social  injury  which  such 
waste  involves.  It  may  still  develop  his  self  reliance  and 
give  him  opportunities  to  make  the  most  of  his  natural 
powers  of  self  assertion  that  he  may,  while  convincing  him 
of  the  social  and  individual  interest  in  his  doing  so  intel- 
ligently and  discouraging  vain  and  misdirected  kicking 
against  the  pricks.  But  to-day  all  this,  much  as  it  is,  must 
leave  us  unsatisfied.  Do  we  need  the  vast  endowments, 
the  great  material  equipment,  the  swarming  personnel  of 
the  modern  American  university  simply  to  do  these  things 
for  organized  society?    As  the  culmination  of  the  educa- 


114  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

tional  system,  the  university  is  for  the  highest  things. 
And  thinking  simply  from  the  standpoint  of  training  for 
citizenship,  are  the  highest  possibilities  of  men  in  society 
to  be  brought  out  by  these  things  alone  ? 

Let  us  pause  for  a  moment  to  relate  our  question  to 
the  general  functions  of  the  university.  The  sophists,  who 
are  the  ultimate  ancestors  of  university  teaching,  aimed  to 
prepare  young  men  for  the  professions  and  pursuits  of 
active  life,  to  prepare  them  to  be  orators  or  politicians  or 
advocates  or  teachers.  In  like  manner  the  medieval  uni- 
versity had  an  immediately  practical  aim.  Men  went  there 
to  study  law  or  theology  or  philosophy  or  medicine  as  to 
purely  professional  schools.  So  the  first  in  time  of  Ameri- 
can universities  was  founded  with  the  avowed  purpose  of 
training  an  educated  ministry  for  the  churches.  With  the 
revival  of  learning  and  the  rise  of  the  humanists,  a  new 
idea  came  in.  For  a  season  men  were  busied  in  recovering 
the  materials  of  ancient  civilization  and  building  them  in- 
to the  civilization  of  to-day.  As  these  wonderful  products 
of  Greek  genius  and  Roman  political  and  legal  experiences 
burst  upon  men's  consciousness  and  shook  the  bonds  of 
authority,  for  a  time  there  was  the  highest  faith  in  the  all- 
sufficiency  of  the  humanities  and  the  supposedly  boundless 
possibilities  of  reason.  Study  of  the  humanities  and  form- 
al training  of  the  reasoning  powers  seemed  to  promise 
everything  for  mankind.  Thus  the  purely  cultural  side  of 
university  education  became  established,  and  it  may  well 
be  that  this  type  of  education  did  the  whole  part  of  the 
university  in  training  for  citizenship  both  wisely  and  well 
in  its  generation.  In  time,  however,  with  changes  in  society 
there  began  a  steady  revival  of  the  vocational  idea.  More 
and  more  it  has  been  pressing  the  humanities  to  the  side 
or  treating  them  as  prevocational  only.  And  yet  nothing 
less  than  life  itself  in  a  civilized  community  of  civilized 
men  is  the  real  vocation  for  which  the  university  must 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  115 

train.  Getting  a  living  is  a  small  matter  in  comparison 
with  living  after  one  has  gotten  it.  Hence  if  the  univer- 
sities have  swung  back  for  a  time  to  the  vocational  idea, 
their  function  is  still  what  it  was  in  prior  periods  of  the 
vocational  conception — to  train  socially  useful  members 
of  society,  useful  generally  as  men  and  specifically  as  pro- 
fessional men  through  their  practice  of  their  profession  or 
calling.  No  doubt  you  will  say  the  university  has  more  to 
do  than  this,  and  I  will  grant  it.  But  the  further  aspects 
of  the  university  are  not  relevant  to  the  present  discus- 
sion. My  proposition  is  that  even  in  the  avowedly  voca- 
tional, which  has  come  to  be  so  large  a  part  of  university 
work,  the  aim  of  the  university  is  ultimately  what  it  was 
under  the  exclusive  reign  of  the  humanities,  what  it  has 
been  from  tne  beginning  of  universities, — ''by  its  insist- 
ence on  the  development  of  the  legitimate  faculties  of 
man,  a  development  secured  by  concentration  on  things 
that  are  in  themselves  pure  and  true,  it  draws  men  to  the 
boundaries  of  human  power." 

If  this  view  is  sound,  the  university  has  always  a 
chief  place  in  the  highest  and  best  training  for  citizenship. 
The  perennial  debates  as  to  its  function  have  in  reality 
been  debates  over  method,  as  best  serving  the  needs  of  this 
or  that  time  and  place.  And  it  is  significant  that  it  has 
never  been  found  necessary  or  expedient  to  make  teaching 
of  citizenship  as  such  directly  a  formal  end.  Nowhere  is  it 
more  true  than  in  teaching  that  the  letter  killeth  and  the 
spirit  giveth  life.  Consider  for  a  moment  what  formal 
dogmatic  teaching  of  citizenship  is  likely  to  be.  ' '  One  of 
the  strongest  factors  of  social  stability, ' '  says  Karl  Pear- 
son, *'is  the  inertness,  nay  rather  the  active  hostility  with 
which  human  societies  receive  all  new  ideas. ' '  We  need 
only  recall  how  the  chosen  people  persecuted  the  proph- 
ets, how  the  Athenian  demos  banished  or  executed  philos- 
ophers, how  the  church  excommunicated    scientists    or 


116  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

forced  them  to  recant  epoch-making  discoveries,  how  in 
the  memory  of  many  here  present  American  colleges  drove 
believers  in  the  evolutionary  theory  of  Darwin  from  their 
chairs.  It  is  not  easy  to  reconcile  the  social  interest  in  the 
general  security  and  in  the  security  of  social  institutions 
with  the  social  interest  in  general  progress;  and  all  official 
dogmatic  purveying  of  orthodoxy  is  sure  to  develop  the 
one  at  the  expense  of  the  other.  To  the  class  possessing 
wealth  and  power,  order  is  the  sum  of  social  interest.  A 
dogmatic  instruction  in  citizenship  conceived  in  that  spirit 
is  certain  to  do  injury  to  social  order  by  the  reaction  it 
will  produce;  a  dogmatic  instruction  in  citizenship  that 
shall  impart  absolute  knowledge  of  the  expedient  compro- 
mise, the  just  balance,  between  the  general  security  and 
general  progress  seems  to  me  an  impossibility. 

This  is  not  the  first  era  of  rudely  shaken  stability 
wherein  men  have  sought  to  hold  fast  the  status  quo  by 
legislation  and  official  instruction.  Under  the  eastern 
Roman  empire  the  lawmakers  believed  that  the  Roman 
power  could  not  decline  if  each  order  and  profession  of  its 
citizens  was  fixed  irrevocably  in  the  sphere  of  its  particu- 
lar duties.  The  wisest  men  of  the  time  considered  freedom 
of  opinion  '*a  species  of  anarchy  incompatible  with  re- 
ligious feeling,  moral  duty  and  good  government.'^ 
Speculation  as  to  political  rights  was  held  incompatible 
with  the  social  order.  But  the  measure  taken  to  maintain 
mankind  **in  a  state  of  stationary  prosperity"  depopulat- 
ed and  impoverished  the  empire  and  withered  the  energies 
of  society,  while  the  relatively  free  philosophical  specula- 
tion of  western  Europe,  which  laid  the  foundations  of 
modem  science,  went  along  with  a  continually  increasing 
material  development.  Again  after  the  Peloponnesian 
war,  the  destruction  of  wealth,  social  disorder  and  politi- 
cal unrest  so  impressed  Greek  philosophers  that  Plato  put 
as  an  ideal  state  one  in  which  the  lawgiver  was  to  be  the 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  117 

judge  for  all  the  citizens,  in  which  they  were  to  hear  noth- 
ing of  which  his  censors  did  not  approve,  and  if,  neverthe- 
less, dissenters  did  arise  they  were  to  be  visited  with 
stringent  penalties.     Such  thinking  belongs  to  the  de- 
cadence of  Athens.    The  attempts  to  fix  an  orthodox  type 
of  citizen  by  unchangeable  authority  proved  only  that 
closed  minds  are  the  most  credulous  and  so  far  from  mak- 
ing for  stability  will  go  further  on  impulse  and  be  swayed 
more  easily  by  plausible  impracticality  than  the  open 
mind  left  free  to  prove  all  things  and  hold  fast  to  that 
which  is  right.    Indeed,  recent  events  in  Russia  testify  to 
the  same  effect.    Nothing  could  be  more  fatal  than  that 
those  who  for  the  time  being  control  the  political  or  the 
economic  organization  of  society  should  be  able  to  use  the 
universities  in  an  attempt  to  manufacture  the  sort  of 
citizens  which  suits  their  interest,  real  or  supposed,  to 
promote.     The  way  for  the  university  to  deal  with  the 
problem  of  qualified  Americanism  is  not  by  strictly  super- 
vised injection  of  a  carefully  prepared  serum  into  the  stu- 
dent brain,  but  by  so  guiding  the  mental  and  moral  self- 
development  of  the  rising  generation  as  to  lead  them  to 
higher  ideals  of  individual  self  assertion,  to  better  and 
broader  views  of  the  ends  of  political  activity  and  to  a 
wider  conception  of  the  possibilities  of  life  in  American 
society.    It  is  not  the  function  of  education  to  make  us  all 
of  one  mold  that  we  may  be  citizens  in  the  Byzantine 
sense.    Variety  is  a  wholesome  feature  of  social  life,  as, 
indeed,  it  is  the  characteristic  of  all  life.    Unity  is  to  be 
found  in  the  ends  of  social  life,  not  in  the  life  itself. 

From  the  men's  house  of  the  primitive  tribe,  the  task 
of  teaching  has  been  to  conserve,  to  further,  to  transmit 
civilization.  In  the  complex  social  organization  of  the 
modern  world  this  task  has  many  sides  and  is  carried  on 
by  many  agencies.  To  the  university  is  committed  to  con- 
serve, to  further,  and  to  transmit  the  highest  things.    And 


118  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

so  the  function  of  the  university  on  the  side  of  training 
for  citizenship  is  one  of  bringing  out  of  men  all  that  makes 
for  the  highest  civilization  and  leading  them  to  conscious 
and  continued  exertion  that  humanity  in  their  time  may 
achieve  the  best  of  which  it  is  then  capable.  From  its 
walls  should  go  forth  prophets  and  statesmen,  poets  and 
engineers,  men  of  broad  refined  culture  and  men  of  strict 
devotion  to  a  narrow  speciality,  dreamers  and  workers, 
thinkers  and  men  of  achievement.  All  are  needed  to  make 
up  a  living,  growing,  civilized  society  in  the  world  of  to- 
day. All  may  be  good  citizens  and  the  aggregate  may  be 
the  highest  type  of  citizenship  if  in  the  university  they 
were  led  to  see  clearly,  to  think  critically,  to  hold  their 
minds  open  and  form  tolerant  judgments  of  their  fellows, 
to  resist  unreason  and  abhor  wilfulness,  to  look  with  dis- 
crimination upon  the  fashionable  project  of  the  moment, 
to  remain  unmoved  by  crazes  and  panics  and  hysterias, 
judging  them  by  a  matured  sense  of  values  and  apprais- 
ing their  phenomena  at  their  permanent  worth. 


THE    UNIVERSITY    AND    INTERNATIONAIi    RE- 
LATIONSHIPS 


SIR  ROBERT  A.   FAWONER,  LI^.D.,  D.LITT.,   C.M.G. 

President  of  the  University  of  Toronto 


Recently  the  Educational  Supplement  to  the  London 
Times  advocated  *'a  League  of  Universities  as  the 
best  means  of  creating  that  mutual  knowledge  and  re- 
spect which  is  a  condition  precedent  to  a  working  League 
of  Nations."  The  writer  supports  his  advocacy  by  re- 
calling the  fact  that  *'in  the  days  of  Innocent  III,  when 
the  idea  of  a  unified  Europe  was  regarded  as  something 
more  than  a  potentiality  of  civilization,  a  single  system 
of  education  dominated  by  what  was  virtually  a  league 
of  universities  was  one  of  the  main  forces  of  unity." 
Before  the  war  there  was  a  real  intercourse  between  the 
universities  and  the  learned  and  scientific  societies  of  the 
world,  which  found  formal  expression  in  the  brilliant 
international  gatherings  that  met  frequently  to  celebrate 
some  important  anniversary  in  the  history  of  the  univer- 
sity— as  for  example  at  Edinburgh,  Bologna,  Berlin, 
Cambridge,  Leipzig,  and,  immediately  before  the  out- 
break of  the  War,  at  Groningen.  Though  this  last  func- 
tion was  graced  by  the  Royal  presence,  probably  the 
most  memorable  incident  was  the  rising  in  a  body  of  the 
professors  of  the  German  universities  clad  in  their  rich 
official  costume,  both  impressive  and  confident,  but  with- 
in a  month  overthrown  from  their  intellectual  eminence 
among  the  universities  of  Christendom. 

In  that  day  of  the  world's  need,  when  civilization 
was  straining  and  creaking,  their  prejudiced  nationalism 
was  a  disruptive  force  that  rent  in  twain  the  common- 


120  EDUCATIOX.U  SESSION 

wealth  of  learning  and  science.  But  internationalism 
will  survive,  and  the  universities  themselves  will  be 
powerful  factors  in  its  permanence.  The  war  has,  how- 
ever, been  an  irrevocable  disaster.  Like  a  flood  it  has 
overlaid  our  civilization  with  debris  and  destroj^ed  our 
finely  cultivated  garden.  To  change  the  figure,  an  inter- 
national bridge  has  collapsed  and  the  people  stand 
looking  both  angrily  and  helplessly  at  one  another 
across  the  chasm.  Even  the  conquering  allies,  sub- 
ject to  reaction  from  the  strain  and  contemplating 
each  their  own  irreparable  losses,  are  for  the  time  subject 
to  fits  of  jealousy.  Instead  of  victory  promoting  inter- 
nationalism, it  sometimes  appears  likely  to  result  in 
narrower  and  more  selfish  nationalism.  As  a  writer 
recently  said:  ''The  worst  consequences  of  war  may  be 
revealed  only  after  the  treaty  of  peace  is  signed.  The 
stakes  played  for  are  no  longer  territory,  indemnities, 
dynasts,  thrones,  and  titles.  States  going  to  war  gamble 
not  only  with  the  existence  of  governments,  but  with  the 
happiness  of  every  citizen  living,  and,  it  may  be,  of  many 
yet  unborn.  . .  A  few  months  may  suffice  to  reduce  to 
dire  distress,  perhaps  in  some  places  to  anarchy,  a  high- 
ly civilized  community,  and  years  may  elapse  before  the 
old  normal  life  returns.  Fully  restored  it  cannot  be,  for 
. .  whoever  be  victor,  a  social  and  economical  revolution 
most  invariably  follow."  {Times,  Literary  Supplement, 
July  16,  1920,  Review  of  ''A  History  of  the  Peace  Con- 
ference of  Paris.")  But  the  universities  are  surely 
among  the  first  to  see  clearly  through  the  confusion  and 
to  believe  that  the  ideals  of  the  past  century  have  not  all 
I^erished.  We  will  continue  to  hold  that  it  is  possible  to 
stimulate  a  finer  sense  for  moral  orderliness  in  the  world. 
But  we  will  begin  by  emphasising  the  need  of  a 
healthier  nationalism..  That  we  are  competent  to  pro- 
duce this  result  is  proved  by  the  magnificient  showing 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  121 

of  the  universities  during  the  war.  Where  was  a  nobler 
idealism  to  be  found  ?  Has  there  ever  been  such  a  vindi- 
cation of  the  quality  of  our  higher  education?  This  re- 
sult was  the  outcome  of  quiet  work  through  generations 
invisibly  moulded  by  the  spirit  of  our  universities.  It  was 
not  a  matter  of  mere  heredity.  The  human  mind  is 
malleable  and  is  being  shaped  by  the  pressure  of  our  in- 
stitutions as  well  as  by  the  blows  of  passion.  Under  the 
tense  emotion  of  war-time  nationalism  is  overdone.  In 
such  days  genuine  patriotism  is  difficult  to  appraise.  In 
peace-time  the  patriot  may  criticise  his  national  insti- 
tutions and  political  leaders;  in  war  he  must  often  be 
silent,  for  his  country  is  much  greater  than  the  policy  of 
the  moment,  and  than  the  average  opinions  of  the  man 
on  the  street  car  or  in  the  smoking-car.  The  patriot 
knows  the  idealism  that  is  in  the  heart  of  his  people  and 
he  does  not  despair  of  the  commonwealth.  He  knows 
the  worth  of  his  inheritance,  and  being  possessed  of 
genuine  love  for  his  people  he  will  not  readily  do  them 
injury  even  if  he  believes  that  they  are  at  fault;  he  sees 
the  deepest  thing]  in  them  and  hopes  that  the  best  will 
prevail.  Of  course  it  is  easier  for  some  men  than  others 
to  pass  over  the  faults  of  their  people.  Eeformers  are 
more  critical  than  conservatives.  But  there  is  nobility 
in  the  old  Tory  who  is  so  slow  to  believe  that  his  country 
can  be  wrong,  or  that  what  is  can  be  easily  improved.  He 
may  often  be  a  barrier  to  progress;  but  at  his  best  he 
stands  erect,  even  with  bloody  head  unbowed  under  the 
blows  of  circumstance.  He  possesses  an  unwavering 
dignity  due  to  conviction  that  the  people  of  his  affection 
will  weather  the  storm — that  of  the  gravis  homo  whom 
popular  clamour  cannot  daunt.  Pasteur  after  1870  was 
such  an  one.  Of  course  his  loyalty  to  science  was  un- 
questioned, and  that  might  be  supposed  to  have  inclined 
him  to  internationalism,  but  equally  deep  was  his  fervid 


122  EDUCATIOX.\L  SESSION 

love  for  his  own  people  with  whom  he  bore  suffering, 
not  only  in  silent  resignation,  but  in  open  protest  against 
the  Germans  for  their  wrongdoing,  and  in  order  to  make 
it  manifest  he  returned  their  decorations  and  afterwards 
would  hardly  accept  them  as  co-workers  in  science. 
Probably  he  was  aware  that  France  was  not  guiltless,  but 
those  whose  government  wounded  so  relentlessly  his  own 
well  loved  country  he  deemed  unworthy  to  be  called  his 
colleagues.  A  man  must  share  with  his  people  either  as 
a  wrong-doer  or  a  sufferer.  Nationalism  is  based  on 
emotions  which  go  deeper  than  the  intellectual  convic- 
tions which  are  the  common  possession  of  all  men  of 
science  to  whatever  country  they  belong.  It  is  the  con- 
comitant of  a  culture  which  is  part  of  us,  and  is  far  more 
than  any  policies  of  state  which  in  the  interests  of  trade 
or  the  selfish  purpose  of  narrower  circles  or  classes  may 
get  us  into  trouble  with  other  nations.  Nationalism  is 
expressive  of  the  people  themselves,  of  their  hopes  and 
passions,  their  health,  their  education,  their  justice,  their 
religion. 

It  is  therefore  immensely  important  that  the  people 
shall  be  educated  into  a  worthy  culture.  Only  upon  this 
foundation  can  the  universities  rear  their  superstructure 
of  an  intelligent  internationalism.  How  far  is  education 
only  national,  and  how  far  in  its  lower  strata,  as  for 
example  the  common  school,  can  it  be  made  to  have 
broad  sympathies  which  prepare  for  a  reasonable  inter- 
nationalism! As  we  know,  even  the  advance  of  good 
physical  conditions  and  mere  instruction  in  the  rudi- 
ments will  not  do  more  than  create  a  measure  of  efficiency 
such  as  is  needed  for  the  affairs  of  everyday  life.  But 
the  character  of  children  is  moulded  for  a  proper 
patriotism  through  the  teacher,  the  quality  of  the  books 
they  read,  what  they  are  taught  about  the  doings  of 
their  own  people,   and   the   mutual   education  through 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  123 

their  playmates  who  bring  into  the  school  atmosphere 
the  ideas  and  the  ethos  of  the  community.  This  stage  is 
not  reflective  but  absorptive,  yet  it  is  then  that  the  great 
proportion  of  the  people  get  their  minds  permanently  set. 
The  school,  therefore,  should  inject  ideas  which  will 
serve  as  anti-toxins  to  counteract  the  incipient  disease  of 
swagger  which  in  the  acute  stage  creates  a  bellicose 
temper.  Children  are  too  young  to  understand  inter- 
nationalism, but  they  are  not  too  young  to  have  those 
virtues  instilled  into  them  which  will  make  the  world  a 
happier  place.  These  are  fortunately  the  very  virtues 
which  will  make  their  own  home  happier.  It  is  not  the 
simple  minded  patriots  like  the  Lincolns,  the  Words- 
worths,  the  Pasteurs,  displaying  as  they  do  human 
virtues  in  the  national  garb,  emotion,  or  speech,  who 
cause  trouble  among  the  nations,  but  it  is  on  a  great  scale 
the  Bismarcks,  or  on  a  lesser  scale  the  narrow  political 
partizans  of  every  nation,  who  set  the  world  by  the  ears 
through  their  blustering  and  selfish  policies. 

The  universities,  receiving  from  the  common  schools 
youth  who  are  imbued  with  nationalism,  are  no  less 
patriotic  centres,  but  we  hope  are  broader  in  their 
spirit.  What  Kipling  said  recently  of  Edinburgh  is  more 
or  less  true  in  a  different  application  of  all  universities: 
''Your  university  represents  sacredly  and  intimately  the 
natural  expression  of  the  genius  and  sacrifice,  the  spirit 
and  devotion  of  your  race.  But  have  you  ever  consider- 
ed that  these  great  buildings  of  yours,  seen  from  the 
South,  loom  up  as  one  of  a  great  chain  of  well-devised 
border  fortresses  and  keeps  of  learning,  which,  genera- 
tion after  generation,  have  trained  and  equipped  the  Scot 
for  his  conquest  of  the  world  in  almost  every  detail  of  the 
world's  development  and  administration?"  (Weekly 
Times,  July  16,  1920.) 

Throughout    their    history,    however,    universities 


124  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

have  been  also  centres  of  internationalism.  Paris  was 
for  centuries  the  intellectual  centre  to  which  the  civilized 
world  sent  its  most  promising  students.  The  hopes  of 
humanism  and  science,  sad  to  say  so  little  realised,  were 
high  that  a  new  day  was  da^\^ling  in  which  dynastic  and 
national  animosities  ending  in  war  would  no  longer  con- 
tinue to  blight  the  finest  flower  of  the  human  spirit,  but 
its  healing  rays  would  bring  to  fruitage  a  harvest  of 
virtues  and  culture  on  a  field  tilled  in  each  portion  by  the 
friendly  rivalry  of  nations  engaged  in  the  common  wel- 
fare of  mankind.  Roger  Bacon,  Vesalius,  Descartes, 
Locke,  Newton  did  not  jealously  guard  their  treasure  for 
any  one  people,  but  poured  their  best  into  the  common 
stock  of  civilization.  Professors  were  called  from  their 
own  nation  to  hold  places  in  other  lands,  as  for  example, 
Buchanan,  the  great  Scotch  humanist  to  the  University 
of  Bordeaux,  and  Erasmus  to  Oxford.  Students  went 
from  one  seat  of  learning  to  another  to  get  the  best, 
such  as  the  metropolitan  schools  of  Bologna  and  Paris, 
though  in  Paris  they  divided  themselves  into  ''nations," 
and  so  kept  alive  a  measure  of  patriotic  feeling.  There- 
fore it  is  in  accordance  with  their  history  and  nature  for 
the  modern  universities  to  be  centres  for  the  development 
of  internationalism  crowning  a  pure  patriotic  spirit. 

There  are  several  ways  in  which  they  may  promote 
internationalism. 

1.  As  in  the  middle  ages,  there  is  and  will  continue 
to  be  a  large  interchange  of  students  among  the  univer- 
sities of  the  world.  The  best  graduates  of  American  uni- 
versities have  made  it  a  practice  for  many  years  to  com- 
plete their  preparation  by  study  abroad.  Indeed,  the 
movement  to  Germany  had  grown  to  such  large  propor- 
tions in  the  eighties  and  nineties  that  Berlin,  Leipzig, 
Gottingen,  Vienna — in  fact  almost  every  university,  large 
or  small,  had  its  quota  of  Americans — and  the  fear  was 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  125 

often  expressed  that  there  was  danger  of  your  learning 
and  science  taking  on  too  exclusively  the  tone,  emphasis 
and  method  of  the  Teutons  and  checking  native  origi- 
nality. And  what  happy  memories  linger  about  those  far- 
off  days,  the  like  of  which  our  sons  hardly  see.  We  recall 
the  quaint  classroom  into  which  enters  with  a  sweeping 
bow  and  wide  brimmed  hat  a  bespectacled  professor  of 
European  fame;  his  intense  manner  and  massive  learn- 
ing; the  unconsciously  humorous  earnestness  with  which 
he  demolishes  his  colleagues'  fanciful  structures;  the  oc- 
casional dinner  at  which  he  became  human  in  his  do- 
mestic simplicity;  the  student  festivities;  the  summer 
walks  among  the  hills  from  which  we  got  glimpses  of 
medieval  buildings  nestling  on  the  hill-side  or  in  the 
valley;  the  longer  tramps  through  Thiiringia,  the  Harz  or 
the  Black  Forest — a  happy  old  world  which  vanished 
like  a  dream  through  the  real  and  horrid  smoke  of  war. 
Delusion,  the  child  of  a  false  public  education,  was  then 
only  beginning  to  hover  upon  the  rulers  of  the  Prussian 
capital,  and  Germany  had  not  yet  become  the  victim  of 
Huhris. 

The  debt  of  American  universities  to  Germany  has 
been  enormous,  but  it  is  a  strange  and  noteworthy  fact 
that  when  the  war  broke  out  the  great  majority  of  Ameri- 
cans who  had  studied  in  Germany  were  quick  to  discern 
the  real  issues  that  were  at  stake,  and  were  not  blinded 
by  indiscriminate  admiration  for  all  things  German. 
They  had  learned  much  and  well,  but  they  had  not  for- 
gotten the  ideals  of  their  own  people.  Probably  on  their 
first  visit  to  Europe  they  had  realized  as  never  before 
their  own  home  prejudices,  the  provincialism  of  some  of 
their  customs,  and  grew  severe  on  the  lack  of  thorough- 
ness and  the  undeveloped  culture  of  thir  own  training; 
but  also  at  that  distance,  and  undisturbed  by  the  passion 
of  the  moment,  they  could  by  comparison  with  other 


126  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

peoples  estimate  the  real  worth  of  their  home  life.  They 
were  thrown  in  with  a  narrow  and  intense  nationalism, 
which  was  being  fostered  by  political  and  educational 
methods  of  which  they  could  not  approve,  and  as  a  result 
they  experienced  at  times  among  professors  and  students 
an  arrogance  akin  to  contempt  for  the  intellectual  pro- 
duct of  the  New  World.  As  to  scientific  method,  devo- 
tion to  learning,  and  respect  for  things  of  the  mind,  they 
found  what  aroused  their  admiration,  but  they  also  dis- 
covered that  in  the  hard  school  of  experience  America 
had  acquired  gifts — political  and  social — which  she 
could  contribute  to  civilization,  and  as  to  which  Germany 
was  still  at  a  stage  of  immaturity. 

Your  migrations  will  continue,  but  your  students 
will  go  in  greater  numbers  to  other  countries  and  draw 
from  their  stores.  The  idea  must  not  be  allowed  to  spread 
that  because  Europe  has  been  desolated  through  the  war, 
all  its  culture  has  been  wiped  out,  and  that  the  world  of 
this  continent,  and  it  may  be  the  Orient,  have  all  the 
future  in  their  keeping.  Vast  and  destructive  changes 
there  have  been,  but  the  peculiar  endowments  of  the 
Latin  and  Teutonic  minds  will  still  contribute  in  their  own 
home  centres  to  the  common  civilization  of  the  world.  I 
hope  that  now,  in  spite  of  present  irritation,  a  new  con- 
nection has  been  made  between  the  universities  of  the 
United  States  and  of  Great  Britain.  You  have  more  to 
learn  from  one  another  than  you  allowed  in  the  past,  and 
than  either  can  get  from  any  other  country.  We  Canadians 
and  others  of  British  stock  have  long  drawn  from  that 
source,  and  as  you  may  suppose  we  have  returned  to  our 
homes  with  a  warm  admiration  for  the  balance,  the 
reasonableness,  the  ethical  reserve  of  Britain,  its  dignity 
and  traditions,  in  a  word  its  character  rather  than  the 
brillance  of  its  intellect.  Surely  you  also  will  in  years  to 
come  discover,  even  if  your  heart  does  not  put  you  so 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  127 

keenly  on  the  scent  as  ours,  that  Britain  is  the  primary 
source  of  many  of  those  virtues  of  English-speaking  cul- 
ture that  we  all  possess  in  common. 

May  I  not  here  refer  to  the  splendid  purpose  of  Cecil 
Ehodes  in  leaving  such  a  princely  endowment  to  promote 
a  true  international  spirit!  Through  his  own  experience 
he  had  acquired  a  deep  trust  in  the  power  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oxford  to  mould  students  through  social  life  and 
common  interests  into  mutual  appreciation  of  and  respect 
for  one  another's  principles.  So  he  conceived  the  plan  of 
uniting  the  world  by  bringing  together  in  Oxford  picked 
youths  from  the  British  Empire,  the  United  States,  and 
Germany.  He  believed  that  the  world  needs  educated 
leaders.  If  they  are  intelligent  and  right-minded,  the 
people  will  follow  them.  He  was  not  thinking  of  men 
who  would  fill  academic  chairs,  but  of  those  who  would 
undertake  some  more  public  service,  and  he  hoped  that  if 
these  men  had  a  friendly  understanding  of  one  another, 
they  would  do  much  to  remove  the  suspicions  that  breed 
wars.  It  was  a  magnificant  vision,  and  though  part  of  it 
has  been  ruined  by  our  recent  disaster,  is  not  his  idealism 
doing  much  to  create  a  clearer  atmosphere  for  the  edu- 
cated leaders  of  the  democracies  that  are  to  be?  But  of 
course  this  benefaction  is  only  a  small  contribution  to 
the  total  effect  of  the  universities  upon  international 
feeling. 

We  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  the  unfavourable 
reports  which  the  American  soldiers  have  brought  back 
with  them  from  France  and  from  Britain,  and  it  has  been 
taken  as  an  indication  of  the  difficulty  of  maintaining 
good  relations  with  peoples  of  different  origin  and 
history.  But  the  soldier  is  not  placed  in  the  circum- 
stances to  see  the  best  side  of  people,  and  he  is  as  a  rule 
not  much  of  an  internationalist,  especially  when  in  arms. 
The  student,  on  the  other  hand,  living  abroad  in  peace- 


128  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

time,  sees  the  finer  qualities  of  the  national  life.  He  is  in 
constant  touch  with  those  who  cherish  the  purest  ideals 
of  their  counry  and  is  not  much  disturbed  by  an  aggres- 
sive or  complacent  patriotism.  This  is  a  very  important 
fact  to  remember  and  to  make  the  most  of,  for  if  those  at 
f.he  top  can  be  kept  well  disposed  to  one  another,  they 
will  by  constant  suggestion  soon  get  the  mass  of  the 
people  into  the  current  towards  which  they  are  slowly 
towing  them. 

The  imiversities  of  the  United  States  are  rapidly  be- 
coming centres  of  attraction  for  students  of  other  nations. 
For  a  generation  you  have  shown  hostility  to  our  Cana- 
dians, and  if  there  were  time  it  would  be  interesting  to 
consider  what  effect  these  graduates,  who  have  either 
returned  home  or  have  remained  in  the  United  States, 
have  had  upon  the  relations  between  the  two  countries. 
South  America  is  turning  to  you,  though  for  years  to 
come  Paris  will  doubtless  continue  to  share  with  you  in 
the  drawing  power;  and  you  realize  better  than  I  do  what 
enonnous  influence  American  institutions  and  society 
have  exercised  upon  China  through  the  thousands  of  stu- 
dents who  have  taken  their  graduate  studies  in  your  col- 
leges. Just  as  your  students  tested  German  life  and 
character  so  these  students  will  weigh  the  worth  of  this 
country,  though  I  hope  and  believe  with  infinitely  better 
results.  Silent  and  clear-eyed  they  look  you  through  and 
through,  and  they  are  sifting  the  ideas  of  your  de- 
mocracy to  see  whether  it  has  a  pure  seed  which  they  may 
sow  in  their  own  soil.  They  will  not  always  receive  good 
impressions  from  the  trader,  the  money-getter  or  the  pro- 
fessional politician.  But  in  your  colleges  they  certainly 
meet  the  choicest  of  your  youth  (and  surely  they  are 
among  the  elite  of  the  world),  and  devoted  and  high- 
minded  teachers  who  will  compel  their  admiration  for 
the  American  mind  and  spirit.    Outside  there  are  what 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  129 

Turgot  called  ''the  tumultuous  and  dangerous  passions" 
of  democracy,  but  within  your  academic  precincts  you 
pursue  in  quietness  whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatso- 
ever things  are  honourable,  whatsoever  things  are  just; 
and  if  there  be  any  virtue  in  the  world  of  men  or  any 
praise  for  the  attainments  of  others,  you  think  on  these 
things. 

There  is,  however,  a  serious  problem  facing  you 
when  you  draw  increasingly  from  Europe,  Asia  and  the 
world  at  large,  especially  when  there  are  many  of  differ- 
ent races  and  tongues.  Americans  in  Oxford  and  English- 
men in  Harvard  do  not  alwaws  hit  it  off,  though  they 
speak  the  same  language  and  inherit  so  much  in  common. 
Often  it  is  simply  a  case  of  *'I  do  not  like  thee.  Dr.  Fell, 
the  reason  why  I  cannot  tell."  But  there  is  a  deeper 
cause  of  incompatibility  in  the  case  of  Chinamen,  Jap- 
anese, Indians,  South  Americans,  or  the  negro  from 
Africa  or  the  West  Indes.  Ideally  you  will  welcome  all 
these;  practically  you  will  find  difficulties.  I  do  not  an- 
ticipate that  the  problem  will  be  acute  if  those  who  come 
are  mature  men  and  women  who  are  in  search  of  graduate 
facilities.  Worse  antagonisms  arise  among  the  younger 
and  less  disciplined,  when  the  foundations  of  character 
are  being  laid  and  the  genius  of  one 's  own  people  is  being 
consciously  absorbed  into  one's  individuality.  The  solu- 
tion, therefore,  is  that  the  several  countries  should  have 
their  national  universities  for  the  undergraduate  career, 
and  that  only  the  competent  and  well-equipped  of  the 
various  races  who  can  form  unbiassed  and  penetrating 
judgments  should  be  sent  abroad  for  study.  Such  will 
always  be  welcomed,  and  they  will  serve  as  living  links  to 
bind  the  peoples  together  in  mutual  understanding  and 
appreciation. 

2.  A  second  means  of  promoting  internationalism 
through  the  universities  is  by  calling  outstanding  figures 


130  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

of  one  country  to  hold  chairs  in  another.    Already  the 
United  States  has  gained  much  in  breadth  of  spirit  by 
this  hospitality  to  learning.    What  distinction  has  come 
to  Johns  Hopkins  and  Harvard,  for  instance,  through  the 
eminent  scholars  and  scientists  from  Europe  who  have 
served  on  their  staffs,  and  have  been  living  centres  of  the 
unique  cultures  of  their  own  nations !    But  this  importa- 
tion must  have  limits,  for  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case 
the  primary  function  of  the  universities  is  national.  Their 
instruction  must  be  mainly  in  the  hands  of  their  own 
people.    No  one  can  understand  an  American  boy  or  girl 
like   an  American   or  inspire   him  with   an  intelligent 
patriotism,  though  to  avoid  narrow  provincialism  this 
American  teacher,  while  embodying  the  best  that  Ameri- 
can culture  has  to  give,  should  have  first-hand  knowledge 
of  some  culture  other  than  his  own.  I  do  not  take  account 
of  the  man  who  has  so  little  pride  in  his  own  that  when  he 
returns  from  abroad  he  hardly  remembers  how  to  speak 
his   own  native  tongue   and  smuggles  in  disagreeable 
social  customs  from  foreign  parts.    He  would  be  ashamed 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.    Nor  do  I  take  into  consideration 
the  conceited  provincial  who  is  too  ignorant  to  permit 
the  brilliancy  of  other  cultures  to  penetrate  his  circum- 
ambient prejudices.    He  sends  forth  his  ideas  as  a  poor 
golf -player  drives  a  ball  against  some  obstacle,  and  like 
it  they  rebound  to  his  own  danger.    To  be  sure,  there  are 
hazards  in  all  foreign  countries,  but  the  courses  do  not 
consist  of  these,  and  the  lay-out  of  most  cultures  must 
compel  the  admiration  of  a  generous  and  intelligent  aca- 
demic   sportsman.      The    competent   teacher   is    neither 
ignorantly  imitative  nor  conceitedly  critical.     Knowing 
and  loving  the  best  of  his  own,  he  rejoices  to  discover  how 
abundant  are  the  treasures  of  culture  in  other  lands,  and 
how  earnest  and  successful  has  been  the  efforts  of  genius 


EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  131 

among  all  civilizations  to  fathom  the  mystry  of  human 
life  and  nature. 

3.  A  word  will  suffice  for  the  third  way  in  which 
the  universities  will  promote  internationalism:  through 
their  students  who  enter  into  public  or  commercial 
spheres.  More  and  more  in  all  countries  the  university 
is  becoming  the  gateway  to  high  positions  in  government, 
industry,  and  commerce.  Secretaries  of  State  are  usually 
college  men,  the  great  journalists  also,  and  the  financiers 
and  captains  of  commerce  in  increasing  numbers.  This 
portal  will  admit  larger  multitudes  in  the  future,  and  our 
education  will  count  for  little  unless  the  hall-mark  of  the 
university  upon  them  indicates  that  they  have  become  not 
only  patriotically  American  but  genuinely  humane,  and 
possess  those  intellectual,  moral,  and  social  virtues  which 
distinguish  man  as  man,  and  which  are  the  accompani- 
ments and  the  consequences  of  a  broad  university  train- 
ing. 

So  in  the  new  day  for  which  we  hope,  though  clouds 
hang  thick  over  its  dawn,  we  may  not  without  reason  ex- 
pect that  the  universities  will  together  diffuse  a  spirit  of 
truth  among  the  educated  classes  of  the  world  which  will 
make  more  difficult  thei  falsehoods  and  ignorance  on 
which  hostilities  flourish ;  and  that  if  there  will  not  be  one 
commonwealth  of  learning  and  science,  even  as  there 
will  not  be  one  Church,  for  many  generations  to  come, 
there  may  at  least  be  realized  a  league  of  universities 
which  will  be  a  consentient  body  working  mightily  for  a 
civilization  truly  international,  though  national  in  its 
manifold  organs. 


THE  GROWTH  OF  STATE  UNIVERSITIES 


LOTUS    D.    COFI'MAN,    PH.D. 

President  of  the  University  of  Minnesota 


The  crisis  which  state  universities  are  experiencing 
at  the  present  time  is  complicated  by  three  sets  of  factors : 
(1)  the  strangely  mixed  elements  of  the  past  which 
characterize  educational  theory  and  practice,  (2)  the  dis- 
position of  college  men  in  response  to  new  pressures  to 
differentiate  the  materials  of  instruction  ad  infinitum^ 
and,  (3)  the  enormous  increase  in  the  number  of  students. 
It  is  not  my  purpose  to  discuss  either  of  the  first  two 
factors  to-day,  although  they  are  deserving  of  and  must 
receive  serious  consideration  in  the  comparatively  near 
future. 

State  universities  have  grown  so  rapidly  that  they  are 
now  approaching  the  breaking  point.  A  solution,  no 
matter  how  tentative,  requires  a  man  of  rare  foresight  or 
of  reckless  temerity.  However,  we  cannot  wait  for  time 
to  offer  a  solution.  "We  must  read  the  signs  and  study  the 
situation  as  best  we  can  and  then  act.  This  is  a  case 
Avhere  they  do  not  serve  who  stand  and  wait. 

Whatever  solution  is  offered  must  in  its  final  analysis 
be  based  upon  a  clear  recognition  of  certain  fundamental 
principles,  viz. : 

1.  A  state  university  is  a  part  of  the  public  system  of  the  state 
and  as  such  must  preserve  the  democratic  doctrines  of  equal 
opportunity  for  all. 

2.  It  must  recognize  the  vastness  and  the  complexity  of  the  modern, 
social,  political  and  industrial   world. 

3.  It  must  insist  that  the  secondary  school  period  is  the  time  and 
the  place  for  the  testing  of  abilities,  the  revealing  of  capacities 
and  tastes,  the  period  of  self-discovery. 

4.  It  must  preserve  the  worthy  traditions  of  scholarship  and  the 
spirit   of   inquiry   and  research   and   of   trained   leadership. 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  133 

Without  attempting  to  elaborate  these  principles, 
but  keeping  them  in  mind,  we  may  proceed  with  a  discus- 
sion of  the  situation  as  it  exists.  State  universities 
literally  have  more  students  than  they  can  accommodate. 
The  flux  of  delayed  registrants  since  the  war  hastened  the 
congestion  somewhat,  but  it  was  coming  anyway.  Had 
conditions  remained  normal,  the  total  number  of  students 
any  state  university  would  have  had  would  have  closely 
approximated  the  number  it  has  this  year.  Two  sets  of 
forces  have  contributed  to  this  growth — the  one  external 
and  the  other  internal.  The  external  forces  are  the  increase 
in  the  total  population  of  the  various  states,  increase 
in  wealth  and  prosperity  generally,  appreciation  of  the 
value  of  special  training,  and  the  growth  of  the  secondary 
schools.  The  internal  forces  are  improvement  in  teaching 
technique,  multiplication  of  courses,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  new  departments  and  schools  or  colleges. 

The  most  important  of  these  forces  is  the  relation 
high  school  growth  bears  to  university  growth.  The  most 
significant  single  feature  of  public  education  in  the  last 
generation  has  been  the  growth  of  the  public  high  school. 
The  greatest  achievement  of  the  last  century — one  un- 
paralleled anywhere  else  in  all  the  world  is  the  retention 
in  school  of  four  children  in  ten  to  fifteen  and  two  in  ten 
to  eighteen  years  of  age.  Comparing  the  secondary 
schools  of  foreign  countries  with  the  four  year  period  ac- 
cepted as  the  standard  in  this  country,  the  United  States 
actually  had,  before  the  war,  more  children  enrolled  in 
secondary  schools  than  all  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world 
combined.  Both  the  number  of  high  schools  and  the 
number  of  children  in  high  school  are  increasing  rapidly 
every  year,  and  seem  likely  to  continue  for  years  to  come 
at  a  rate  faster  than  the  increase  in  the  general  popula- 
tion. 

This    complicates    especially    the    state    university 


134  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

problem.  A  recent  investigation  at  the  University  of 
Minnesota  showed  that  the  percentage  of  students 
graduating  from  high  school  in  any  given  year  and  enter- 
ing the  university  is  gradually  decreasing.  In  1893 
ninety-five  percent  of  the  high  school  graduation  class  in 
Minnesota  became  freshmen  in  the  university;  now  less 
than  twenty-four  percent  enter  the  university.  Although 
the  ratio  of  high  school  graduates  in  any  given  year  to 
the  freshmen  class  in  the  university  is  gradually  decreas- 
ing, the  actual  number  of  freshmen  is  increasing.  This 
is  easily  accounted  for;  the  number  of  pupils  in  high 
school  is  increasing  every  year  at  such  a  rate  as  to  more 
than  counterbalance  the  decline  in  percentage. 

The  number  of  high  schools  in  Minnesota  has  in- 
creased one  hundred  and  thirty-six  percent  in  the  last 
twenty  years;  the  total  high  school  enrollment,  nine 
hundred  and  eighty-two  percent  in  the  last  thirty  years, 
and  yet  the  end  is  not  in  sight,  for  only  21.2  percent  of  the 
total  state  population  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and 
seventeen  inclusive  was  enrolled  in  high  school  in  1915. 
As  careful  an  estimate  as  we  have  been  able  to  make 
shows  that  about  thirty  four  percent  of  the  present  enter- 
ing high  school  classes  fail  to  complete  their  courses  of 
study.  We  believe  that  we  are  reasonably  conservative 
in  prophesying  that  between  twenty  and  twenty-five  per 
cent  of  the  high  school  graduating  class  will  enter  the 
university  annually  hereafter.  Now  assuming  that  all 
of  the  forces  which  have  resulted  in  the  past  development 
of  high  schools  will  continue  to  exert  the  same  influence 
in  the  same  relative  measure,  a  forecast  would  give  the 
state  of  Minnesota  fifteen  thousand  high  school  graduates 
in  1930  and  twenty-one  thousand  in  1940.  This  would 
mean  an  undergraduate  registration  at  the  University  of 
approximately  thirteen  thousand  in  1940. 

If  the  situation  is  difficult  now,  what  will  it  be  then? 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  135 

Clearly  impossible,  unless  the  appropriations  be  vastly 
increased,  which  means  finding  new  sources  of  revenue,  or 
unless  there  is  a  reorganization  of  the  theory  of  public 
school  and  university  administration.  More  money  un- 
doubtedly can  be  found  and  will  be  found,  but  there  is 
great  danger  that  the  sum  available  will  be  wholly  in- 
adequate for  the  needs  of  higher  education.  Even  though 
larger  appropriations  may  be  secured  for  the  next  several 
biennial  periods,  we  shall  be  simply  postponing  the  day 
when  measures  of  a  more  radical  nature  must  be  consider- 
ed. We  need  more  money  now  for  salaries,  more  money 
for  new  instructors,  more  money  for  buildings,  more 
money  for  equipment.  To  increase  these  needs  without 
introducing  drastic  internal  economies  and  re-defining 
the  functions  of  the  various  units  of  state  education,  is 
to  shut  our  eyes  to  a  problem  that  is  ours  and  not  our 
successors. 

Now  what  are  the  possible  remedies.  Several  have 
been  suggested.  An  anonymous  writer  in  the  New  Re- 
public facetiously  suggests  that  higher  education  should 
be  financed  by  requiring  students  to  pay  fees  on  the  basis 
of  the  grades  they  receive.  The  writer  describes  a  school 
that  was  in  dire  financial  distress.  Every  one  was  discour- 
aged and  despondent.  The  faculty  met  from  time  to  time 
and  engaged  in  the  ''usual  academic  discussion."  But  aca- 
demic discussion  does  not  supply  funds  to  buy  coal  or  to 
pay  the  butcher  and  the  grocer.  The  president  held  out 
the  hope  of  better  days,  but  no  one  could  see  them.  A 
business  expert  was  employed  to  study  and  report  upon 
the  problem.  He  discovered  that  there  are  two  classes  of 
students,  those  who  go  to  college  for  an  education,  and 
those  who  are  in  college  because  it  is  a  fashionable  and  re- 
spectable place  to  be.  He  recommended  that  all  students 
having  a  grade  of  90  or  better  should  be  exempt  from 


136  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

fees;  those  having  grades  between  80  and  90  should  pay 
a  fee  of,  say  $200  a  year;  between  70  and  80,  $500  a  year, 
and  so  on  down  until  those  who  received  grades  of  20  or 
below  should  pay  a  $20,000  fee.  Out  of  3,000,  he  discover- 
ed that  180  students  would  have  no  fees  to  pay.  One  of 
the  mythical  fathers  in  sending  his  twenty  thousand  dollar 
check  is  reported  to  have  written,  "It  comes  high,  but  I 
believe  it  is  worth  it  to  be  rid  of  the  boy  for  the  year." 
Something  like  $15,000,000  in  fees  were  collected  in  one 
year  from  3,000  students.  A  veritable  college  utopia  was 
created.  Magnificant  buildings  at  once  began  to  spring 
up  on  the  campus,  the  best  equipment  was  purchased,  sal- 
aries were  advanced  beyond  the  wildest  dreams  of  the 
professor,  the  president  could  retire  to  his  bed  once  more 
and  sleep  without  dreaming  of  underfed  professors  and 
congested  classes.  Every  one  was  getting  what  he  wanted 
and  paying  for  what  he  got.  If  the  college  needed  more 
money  all  it  had  to  do  was  to  lower  the  grades  of  a  few 
more  students. 

Another  equally  novel  suggestion  is  that  of  paying 
the  teaching  staff  according  to  the  number  of  hours  they 
teach.  One  of  our  problems  is  that  of  getting  a  greater 
total  of  hours  of  instruction  for  the  total  money  now 
available.  As  a  reaction  from  the  deadening  overwork  of 
the  none  too,  recent  past,  the  general  tendency  recently 
has  been  to  apportion  a  comparatively  light  teaching 
load.  The  arguments  for  it  are  convincing  but  such 
strength  as  they  may  have  lies  in  the  wisdom  and  dis- 
crimination that  is  used  in  their  application  to  a  given 
situation.  In  a  certain  medical  school  a  professor  was 
engaged  with  the  understanding  that  he  could  practice 
outside  two  hours  a  day.  He  recently  requested  that  the 
university  determine  the  number  of  hours  he  should  give 
to  it;  not  the  number  he  should  practice.  In  another  case, 
the  head  of  a  department  presented  a  request  for  ad- 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  137 

ditional  assistance.  He  made  the  usual  arguments — in- 
crease in  students,  staff  already  teaching  more  than  the 
normal  number  of  hours,  department  rapidly  becoming 
hopelessly  inefficient.  But  one  of  his  instructors  who  was 
teaching  fifteen  hours  stated  that  he  would  be  willing  to 
teach  another  class  of  five  hours  if  he  could  be  paid  pro- 
portionately for  the  extra  instruction.  Upon  learning 
this,  the  head  of  the  department  suddenly  decided  that 
in  the  interest  of  science,  the  young  instructor  should  be 
protected  and  that  if  any  one  should  take  an  extra  class 
with  extra  pay,  he  himself  would  do  it.  One  thing  is 
certain:  if  the  staff  were  paid  by  the  hour,  an  enormous 
amount  of  what  the  public  might  call  instruction  could  be 
secured  without  any  very  considerable  increase  in 
revenue.  Please  bear  in  mind  that  I  am  not  urging  pay 
according  to  labor  union  methods,  but  if  it  is  more  hours 
of  instruction  that  one  wants  and  nothing  else,  this  sug- 
gestion is  as  plausible  as  any. 

A  more  rational  plan  than  either  of  these  would  be  to 
limit  the  actual  number  of  students  that  the  institution 
would  take.  But  it  must  be  recalled  in  this  connection 
that  a  state  university  is  a  part  of  the  public  school  sys- 
tem of  the  state  and  as  such  it  is  as  truly  the  creature  of 
the  interests  and  policies  of  the  people  as  any  other  unit  of 
the  schools  of  the  state.  It  is  inconceivable  that  the  state 
will  deny,  through  legislative  action  or  the  university  fiat, 
a  university  education  to  any  boy  or  girl  who  is  prepared 
to  attempt  it.  Such  a  denial  would  be  subversive  of  the 
interests  of  a  true  democracy.  It  would  mean  that  the 
doctrine  of  equality  of  educational  privilege  and  oppor- 
tunity had  been  discarded  in  the  interest  of  a  program  of 
what  would  have  the  form  and  might  acquire  the  char- 
acter of  aristocratic  education. 

Two  concrete  suggestions  have  been  made,  either  of 
which  would  place  a  definite  limitation  upon  the  number 


138  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

of  registrants.  One  comes  from  a  western  state.  It  con- 
templates the  granting  of  as  many  scholarships  as  the 
university  can  accommodate  students  to  the  various  coun- 
ties of  the  state,  each  of  which  shall  be  charged  with  the 
responsibility  of  selecting,  as  scholars,  as  many  students 
as  the  number  of  pupils  in  its  high  schools  bears  the  total 
number  of  high  school  pupils  in  the  state. 

The  other  plan  is  now  being  definitely  tried  at 
Columbia,  and  to  a  degree  in  a  number  of  other  institu- 
tions. It  is  that  of  admitting  students  on  the  basis  of  in- 
telligence tests,  supplemented  by  certain  other  data.  The 
plan,  it  appears,  is  workable  but  it  would  be  difficult  to 
convince  the  average  taxpayer  or  the  average  legislator 
of  its  fairness.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  average  parent 
to  think  that  his  son  or  daughter  belongs  to  the  specially 
talented.  And  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  every  student  of 
the  science  of  education  knows  that  college  students  may 
be  as  far  apart  as  the  poles  intellectually,  that  while  in- 
tellectuality does  not  determine  entrance  to  college,  it 
does  determine  achievement.  Furthermore,  he  knows 
that  credits  of  a  non-intellectual  character  are  accepted 
for  graduation  by  many  high  schools.  This  practice  is 
common  enough  to  induce  one  writer  to  say  that  *  *  any  one 
with  sense  enough  to  bathe  and  dress  himself  can,  with 
slight  encouragement,  get  into  the  average  state  univer- 
sity." There  is  just  enough  truth  in  this  statement  to 
warrant  high  schools  in  raising  their  standards  of  gradu- 
ation and  universities  their  standards  of  entrance. 

It  is  clear  to  every  one  familiar  with  university  ad- 
ministration, that  practically  all  grades  and  degrees  of 
intelligence  may  be  found  in  any  freshman  class.  It  is 
also  clear  that  the  standards  of  high  school  graduation 
have  been  lowered  as  the  curriculum  has  been  broadened. 
There  is  another  bad  feature  of  the  situation  and  that  is 
that  universities  do  not  break  the  work  of  the  freshman 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  139 

year  to  correspond  to  differences  in  previous  training. 
Students  are  not  classified  on  the  basis  of  intelligence  or 
previous  training,  but  on  the  basis  of  the  convenience  of 
the  administration.  Some  clerk,  for  example,  is  required 
to  take  the  cards  of  the  three  thousand  entering  freshmen, 
place  them  in  piles  of  thirty  each,  without  any  reference 
to  the  previous  training,  ability  or  capacity  of  the  stu- 
dents. It  certainly  seems  absurd  to  force  all  students  of 
a  foreign  language,  some  of  whom  have  had  four  years  of 
it,  some  three,  and  some  almost  none,  to  take  exactly  the 
same  units  of  it  in  the  university.  And  yet,  I  am  told,  that 
is  or  has  been  done.  It  also  seems  absurd  to  force  all  stu- 
dents who  have  had  four  years  of  high  school  English, 
some  of  whom  use  English  skillfully  and  accurately  and 
others  of  whom  will  never  be  able  to  use  it  at  all  well,  to 
take  exactly  the  same  beginning  English  in  the  univer- 
sity. 

The  University  of  Montana  is  doing  a  progressive 
and  sane  thing  in  breaking  away  from  this  unreasonable 
and  archaic  form  of  administrative  procedure.  It  is 
classifying  its  entering  students  on  the  basis  of  their 
ability  to  use  English.  The  gifted  ones  carry  the  subject 
only  one  quarter,  those  a  little  less  gifted,  two  quarters, 
and  the  least  gifted,  three-quarters.  This  plan  has  re- 
leased instructors  for  other  work,  and  makes  it  possible 
for  students  to  make  real  educational  progress.  It  is  a 
step  in  the  right  direction.  It  is  a  clear  recognition  that 
attainment  and  ability  must  be  considered  in  the  classi- 
fication of  students. 

The  situation  might  still  be  further  ameliorated  by 
the  introduction  of  other  types  of  internal  changes.  One 
of  these  would  be  to  increase  the  size  of  the  classes. 
American  universities,  and  particularly  state  univer- 
sities, have  always  stood  for  mass  education.  True,  they 
have  talked  about  the  development  of  research  and  train- 


140  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

ing  for  leadership,  but  they  are  doing  precious  little  of 
either.  In  comparison  with  Germany  and  France  and  a 
little  less  so  of  England,  America  has  made  no  adequate 
provision  for  the  training  of  leaders.  With  certain  ex- 
ceptions, of  course,  the  great  men  of  Germany  and  France 
are  in  the  universities.  With  due  apologies  to  those  pres- 
ent at  this  meeting  and  excepting  any  one  who  wishes  to  be 
excepted,  as  much  cannot  be  said  for  America.  Our  sys- 
tem is  organized  to  train  students  in  large  groups,  and 
the  groups  are  getting  larger.  Is  that  a  benefit  or  a  men- 
ace ?  We  assume  a  priori  that  it  is  a  menace.  But  recent 
investigations  in  the  field  of  elementary  education  show 
that,  generally  speaking,  the  size  of  the  class  is  not  a  true 
measure  of  the  attainment  of  the  class.  In  other  words, 
classes  with  sixty,  seventy,  eighty  or  ninety  pupils,  ap- 
parently do  just  as  well  in  those  things  that  they  were 
measured  in  as  classes  with  ten,  twenty  or  thirty  pupils. 
The  facts  also  show  that  if  all  classes  of  thirty-five  or 
more  students  were  reduced  to  classes  of  thirty-five  or 
fewer  students,  there  would  be  approximately  only  forty 
more  promotions  out  of  a  thousand.  These  data,  be  it  re- 
membered, are  gathered  from  studies  of  students  far  less 
mature  and  far  less  capable  of  initiative  than  the  college 
student. 

We  argue  for  small  classes  and  yet  we  are  continual- 
ly making  them  larger.  Nearly  every  university  has  its 
large  history  class,  consisting  of  three  hundred  or  more 
students.  The  general  lectures  are  given  to  the  entire 
class  and  quiz  sections  are  organized  for  discussion  and 
to  test  the  students.  Many  of  the  laboratories  in  organic 
and  inorganic  chemistry,  for  example,  are  built  to  accom- 
modate hundreds  of  students  at  one  time.  All  of  the 
lectures  in  English  Survey  might  better  be  given  by  two 
or  three  good  lecturers  to  classes  of  five  hundred  or  more 
than  fifteen  poor  lecturers  to  classes  of  thirty  each.  Many 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  141 

subjects  and  parts  of  nearly  every  subject  can  be  pre- 
sented to  hundreds  of  students  at  once,  if  the  method  of 
presentation  is  to  be  the  lecture  method,  as  easily  and  of- 
ten better  than  to  small  classes.  Large  classes  are  being 
created  in  the  face  of  all  the  resistance  which  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  modern  university  can  create.  Large  bodies 
of  students  and  inadequate  revenues  have  forced  the 
change.  Shall  we  declare  that  it  is  all  wrong?  That  de- 
pends upon  our  definition  of  a  university.  If  it  is  simply 
to  provide  a  high  level  of  general  training  for  the  pur- 
pose of  improving  the  general  intelligence  of  all  the  peo- 
ple or  of  as  many  as  can  be  reached,  then,  frankly,  I  can 
see  no  reason  why  we  should  not  deliberately  plan  many 
large  classes. 

There  are  a  number  of  other  types  of  administra- 
tive devices  that  may  be  tried  in  dealing  with  the  situa- 
tion. The  State  University  of  Washington  has,  I  believe, 
introduced  one  of  the  most  comprehensive  of  these  plans. 
Washington  was  faced  with  the  problem  of  getting  more 
instruction  without  getting  more  money,  or  rather  it  de- 
termined to  make  every  dollar  go  as  far  as  it  could.  To 
accomplish  this,  it  did  two  things :  it  established  a  teach- 
ing rank  below  the  rank  of  instructor  and  called  the  mem- 
bers of  this  teaching  rank  assistants;  and  second,  it  es- 
tablished a  teaching  load  of  fifteen  hours  as  the  norm  for 
the  entire  university.  Full  time  teaching  assistants  are 
expected  to  carry  a  full  teaching  load.  Teaching  assis- 
tants are  employed  because  they  are  good  teachers.  They 
are  not  expected  or  permitted,  I  believe,  to  carry  any  uni- 
versity work  while  teaching.  Promotion  up  the  academic 
scale  is  not  open  to  them  unless  they  drop  out  and  com- 
plete the  work  for  their  degrees. 

According  to  the  plan,  two  hours  of  laboratory  are 
considered  the  equivalent  of  one  hour  of  recitation,  and 
ten  hours  of  lectures  equivalent  of  fifteen  hours  of  recita- 


142  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

tion.  An  administrator  may  receive  a  time  allotment  for 
administration.  A  person  engaged  upon  a  piece  of  re- 
search may  get  six,  eight,  ten  or  more  hours  allotted  for 
research,  and  thus  reduce  his  teaching  load  correspond- 
ingly. There  can  be  little  doubt  but  that  this  plan  will 
stimulate  research.  It  contemplates  checking  those  from 
time  to  time  who  receive  allotments  for  the  purpose  of  de- 
termining the  progress  of  their  research. 

The  State  University  of  Washington  has  one  other 
step  under  consideration,  and  that  is  equating  the  credits 
of  courses  of  secondary  grade  and  courses  of  university 
grade.    It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  many  of 
the  so-called  courses  of  a  university  are  nothing  but  sub- 
limated high  school  courses.    Beginning  courses  in  nearly 
all  of  the  school  subjects  can  be  found  in  most  state  uni- 
versities.   At  Minnesota  this  last  3'ear,  we  had  eighty 
sections  in  beginning  English,  and  were  unable  to  provide 
instruction  in  freshman  English  for  about  six  hundred 
other  students  because  of  a  lack  of  instructors.    The  Uni- 
versity  had  more    sections  in    beginning  romance    lan- 
guages than  there  are  classes  in  the  entire  law  college. 
Nearly  eighty  per  cent  of  all  the  instruction  and  energy 
of  the  Arts  College  was  and  still  is  devoted  to  freshman 
and  sophomore  work  on  the  secondary  level.     The  so- 
called  junior  college  of  many  of  our  universities  is  noth- 
ing more  or  less  than  a  glorified  high  school.    It  may  be 
true  that  the  same  students  do  more  work  and  better 
work  at  the  university  as  freshmen  and  sophomores  than 
they  do  as  juniors  and  seniors  in  the  high  school,  but  the 
difference  is  due  largely  to  maturity.    That  they  will  do 
better  work  at  the  university  than  they  will  do  in  the 
corresponding  years  or  classes  at  home  remains  to  be 
demonstrated. 

Now  the  Washington  plan,  if  I  understand  it  correct- 
ly, means  to  equate  the  credits  of  secondary  and  univer- 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  143 

sity  subjects  and  courses.  For  example-  a  university  sub- 
ject will  carry  one  credit  for  one  hour  a  week,  but  a  high 
school  subject  will  carry  less,  say  three-fourths  of  a 
credit.  If  the  teaching  load  for  subjects  on  the  university 
level  is  fifteen  hours,  the  teaching  load  for  subjects  in  the 
secondary  level  will  be  twenty  hours. 

This  plan  will  do  what  it  is  intended  to  do, — it  will 
provide  more  teaching  without  increasing  the  cost  to  the 
institution.    It  is  an  internal  administrative  device  pure 
and  simple.    Whatever  its  value,  it  must  be  regarded  as 
a  temporary  expedient  rather  than  an  ultimate  solution 
to  the  problem.    The  ultimate  solution  must  be  something 
more  than  an  administrative  expedient.    It  must  rest  on 
a  consideration  of  the  relation  that  a  state  university 
bears  to  the  state  and  to  the  other  educational  units  of 
the  state.    I  believe  that  a  state  university  was  establish- 
ed primarily  to  train  men  and  women  for  distinctive  work 
in  the  various  professions  and  to  provide  others  with  a 
liberal  education.    In  order  to  realize  these  purposes  it 
lowered  its  entrance  requirements  and  took  poorly  pre- 
pared students;  it  reached  over  into  the  secondary  field 
when  high  schools  were  few  in  number,  and  appropriated 
many  of  the  high  school  subjects.    Entrance  requirements 
have  been  raised  from  time  to  time,  but  most  of  the  appro- 
priated subjects  have  remained.  Its  first  concern  should  be 
that  of  divesting  itself  of  those  things  that  do  not  belong 
to  it.  This  can  be  done  in  one  of  three  ways — by  refusing 
to  admit  students  to  any  course  which  they  can  get  in 
their  own  local  schools;  by  urging  the  establishment  of 
junior  colleges,  or  by  prolonging  the  public  school  period 
so  as  to  provide  for  freshman  and  sophomore  work. 
Whichever  plan  is  followed  the  result  in  the  long  run  will 
be  the  same  elimination  from  the  overburdened  univer- 
sity of  much,  if  not  all,  of  its  high  school  work. 

The  College  of  Engineering  at  Michigan  has,  I  under- 


144  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

stand,  effected  an  interesting  affiliation  with  one  of  the 
smaller  colleges  of  the  state.  The  first  two  years  of  work 
are  carried  on  in  the  smaller  college,  the  last  two  in  the 
College  of  Engineering  at  the  University.  The  student 
receives  his  degree  from  the  smaller  college  where  he  first 
attended.  The  far-reaching  benefits  of  such  a  scheme  can 
be  easily  conjectured.  It  would  result  in  more  cordial 
relationship  between  the  private  schools  and  the  univer- 
sity; it  would  enable  the  private  independent  schools  to 
do  better  work,  and  it  would  not  take  from  them  the 
coveted  right  to  grant  degrees. 

But  the  relief  which  a  university  would  get  by  this 
arrangement  would  not  be  enough.  A  closer  contact  with 
the  public  schools  must  be  made.  Those  schools  ought  to 
take  over  the  work  which  rightfully  belongs  to  them. 
They  should  expand  so  as  to  include  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  years  of  work.  This  has  already  been  done  in 
many  places.  When  once  expanded  there  is  no  reason 
why  the  two  additional  years  should  be  known  as  a  junior 
college.  They  really  should  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  the 
public  school  system.  Universities  should,  on  the  other 
hand,  outline  curricula  leading  to  the  various  degrees. 
These  curricula  should  indicate  the  necessary  prereq- 
uisites in  each  case.  A  student  coming  from  the  public 
school  with  these  prerequisites  should  be  admitted  at 
once  to  his  professional  or  academic  cuiTiculum. 

Many  of  the  high  schools  would  be  compelled  to  add 
but  few  instructors  to  provide  the  necessary  courses  in 
the  logical  amplification  of  their  acknowledged  functions. 
If,  on  account  of  limited  finances,  it  is  impossible  for  any 
community  to  provide  the  extra  courses  and  extra 
teachers,  it  should  be  possible  to  increase  the  size  of  the 
taxing  unit.  There  are  few  counties  which  could  not,  if 
they  wished,  and  if  the  law  permitted,  maintain  the  two 
additional  years,  and  at  a  very  small  tax  rate.    It  would 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  145 

be  both  proper  and,  in  my  opinion,  wise,  if  the  state 
granted  a  small  subsidy  to  encourage  the  spread  of  the 
movement. 

There  is  one  other  comment  which  I  should  like  to 
make  and  that  is,  if  the  plan  which  has  been  outlined  be 
adopted,  it  should  not  require  fourteen  years  of  public 
school  work  to  prepare  the  better  student  for  the  present 
junior  year  of  college.  I  am  convinced  from  my  own  ob- 
servation and  investigation  of  hundreds  of  schools  of 
both  secondary  and  collegiate  grade,  that  the  time  of 
preparation  for  such  students  can  be  shortened  to  thir- 
teen and  eventually  to  twelve  years. 

Furthermore,  a  reorganization  along  these  lines 
should  involve  the  differentiation  of  courses  both  in  pub- 
lic school  and  in  the  university  in  terms  of  occupational 
needs  and  the  types  of  professional  service  for  which  one 
is  preparing.  It  is  little  short  of  a  travesty  to  provide 
four  years  of  training  for  all  lines  of  engineering,  all  lines 
of  business,  or  all  lines  of  agriculture.  There  may  be 
much  sanctity  but  there  is  little  sense  in  the  educational 
fetich  of  four  years.  A  course  is  not  professional  because 
it  is  four  years  in  length.  It  is  professional  because  of  the 
type  of  service  for  which  it  prepares.  It  is  just  as  pro- 
fessional to  prepare  one  for  a  type  of  service  which  re- 
quires two  years  of  training  as  it  is  to  prepare  one  for  a 
type  of  service  which  requires  four  years  of  training. 
Some  courses  should  be  completed  in  two  years,  others  in 
three,  others  in  four,  and  still  others  should  require  five  or 
six  years.  And  not  only  do  all  persons  not  need  four  years 
of  university  education  to  be  good  citizens  or  to  be  suc- 
cessful practitioners  of  some  worthy  occupation  or  pro- 
fession, but  all  persons  by  virtue  of  inherent  differences  in 
native  capacity  are  not  equally  well  equipped  to  profit  by 
such  training.    Equality  of  ability  we  do  not  have ;  equal- 


146  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

ity  of  ability  we  must  have  and  preserve.  This  plan 
recognizes  both  of  these  important  facts. 

When  once  introduced  this  plan  will  call  for  a  num- 
ber of  other  changes.  Most  of  the  present  freshmen  and 
sophomore  courses  will  be  continued  in  the  high  school, 
but  not  all.  Many  new  courses  not  now  listed  will  be 
offered.  Instructors  will  be  employed  in  the  public  school 
who  can  teach  and  largely  because  they  are  qualified  by 
technique  and  preparation  to  teach.  The  junior  college, 
if  it  clings  to  that  name,  will  be  a  school,  and  the  univer- 
sity will  have  the  possibility  of  being  a  university.  The 
modem  state  university  is  rapidly  ceasing  to  be  a  univer- 
sity; it  is  by  force  of  circumstances  becoming  a  school. 
The  differences  between  a  school  and  a  university  are 
fundamental,  inhere  in  the  very  nature  of  the  institutions, 
and  permeate  every  phase  of  their  life  and  atmosphere. 

With  the  university  re-established,  greater  care  can 
be  and  should  be  exercised  in  the  selection  of  students. 
Detailed  intensive  programs  for  the  training  of  scholars, 
leaders,  and  highly  skilled  professional  technicians  will 
be  prepared.  Elaborate  and  scholarly  preparation  will 
be  required  of  all  instructors  before  they  are  appointed. 
The  teaching  schedule  will  be  short  enough  to  permit 
them  to  engage  in  investigation  and  research.  Eequire- 
ments  for  the  advancement  of  students  will  be  rigid. 
While  the  door  of  the  junior  college  will  be  kept  wide 
open,  a  fine  meshed  sieve  will  be  located  at  the  end  of  the 
university  course.  Students  will  be  advanced  on  the  basis 
of  ability  and  achievement  and  will  be  granted  greater 
freedom  in  controlling  their  own  movements.  The  old 
artificial  lines  between  senior  college  and  graduate  col- 
lege w^ill  disappear.  The  principles  laid  down  at  the 
beginning  of  this  paper  will  have  been  realized  and  the 
state  will  have  a  system  of  education  which  serves  the 
needs  of  every  individual,  provides  for  training  in  every 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  147 

field  which  it  can  support  and  of  which  it  may  well  be 
proud. 


THE    COST    OF    HIGHER    EDUCATION    AND    ITS 
BEAEING  ON  TAXATION 


SAMUEL    P.    CAPEN,    PH.D. 

Director  of  the  American  Council  on  Education 


Two  3^ears  and  a  half  ago  the  higher  institutions  of 
the  United  States  were  threatened  with  virtual  extinction 
as  the  result  of  the  plans  for  mobilizing  the  man  power  of 
the  country.  They  were  saved  by  being  incorporated  in 
the  mobilization  machinery.  The  normal  processes  of 
higher  education  were  thereby  suspended  or  distorted. 
College  officers  underv^'ent  much  mental  suffering,  the 
memory  of  which  still  rankles.  In  some  cases  physical 
damage  was  done  to  university  equipment  which  has  thus 
far  been  only  partially  repaired.  Higher  institutions  made 
extraordinary  contributions  both  directly  and  indirectly 
to  the  war  effort  of  the  United  States;  directly  by  in- 
voluntarily converting  themselves  into  training  centers 
for  the  military  forces,  indirectly  through  the  indispen- 
sable services  rendered  by  their  sons  and  daughters  in  the 
field,  in  scientific  investigation  and  in  administrative 
undertakings.  One  aspect  of  these  contributions  has  been 
little  dwelt  upon,  but  is  worthy  of  note.  Whereas  nearly 
every  other  agency  that  furnished  the  Government  with 
either  human  or  material  products,  contracted  to  do  so  on 
the  cost  plus  basis,  the  college  contracts  were  cost  minus 
contracts.  I  am  sure  that  all  members  of  the  fellowship 
of  scholars  are  glad  and  proud  that  this  was  so.  The 
idealism  for  which  universities  stand  received  a  new 
demonstration.  They,  at  least,  reaped  no  profits  from  the 
nation's  emergency.  But  although. the  universities  them- 
selves have  not  boasted  of  their  sacrifice,  it  should  not  be 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  149 

forgotten  by  those  who  supply  the  means  that  universities 
may  live.  It  has  some  bearing  on  the  dilemma  in  which  the 
higher  institutions  of  the  country  now  find  themselves. 

Higher  education  is  now  in  the  midst  of  another 
crisis,  less  sudden,  less  spectacular,  but  none  the  less 
threatening.  It  is  indeed  less  glorious,  as  death  by  starva- 
tion is  less  glorious  than  death  in  battle.  For  colleges  and 
universities,  with  few  exceptions,  are  facing  the  slow  and 
sordid  disintegration  that  follows  a  long  period  of  under 
nourishment.  The  condition  is  remediable.  But  it  must 
be  remedied  quickly  and  radically,  or  the  whole  body  of 
the  nation  will  be  affected.  It  therefore  behooves  the 
friends  of  higher  education  to  make  the  fact  known  to 
those  on  whose  influence  and  generosity  colleges  and  uni- 
versities depend. 

AVhat  are  the  facts  1  Here  are  a  few  that  have  peculiar 
significance.  In  the  twenty  years  preceding  the  armistice 
the  expansion  of  the  higher  educational  establishment  of 
the  United  States  was  phenomenal.  The  number  of  insti- 
tutions did  not  increase.  On  the  contrary  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Education  listed  672  colleges  and  universities  in 
1898  and  but  554  in  1918.  The  number  of  students,  how- 
ever, was  somewhat  more  than  doubled  in  this  interval. 
The  instructional  force  increased  approximately  125  per 
cent.  The  total  annual  receipts  of  higher  institutions,  ex- 
clusive of  additions  to  endowments,  increased  from  about 
$26,000,000  to  something  over  $137,000,000.  The  average 
income  per  student  was  $138  in  1898.  At  the  time  of  the 
armistice  it  was  $365.  The  proportion  of  the  total  popula- 
tion between  the  ages  of  19  and  23  enrolled  in  higher  insti- 
tutions increased  from  three  and  one-third  percent  to  four 
and  one-half  percent,  and  the  rate  of  increase  was  rapidly 
accelerating.  During  the  last  few  years  of  this  period  the 
Bureau  of  Education  calculated  that  the  normal  annual 
rate  of  growth  of  college  and  university  student  bodies 


150  EDUCATIOX.\L  SESSION 

was  about  five  percent,  which  was  considerably  faster  than 
the  rate  of  growth  of  the  population  of  the  country. 

These  figures  broadly  reveal  two  important  tenden- 
cies; namely,  the  growing  social  demand  for  higher  educa- 
tion, and  the  greatly  increased  expense  of  that  commodity. 
Critics  of  our  educational  system  were  sometimes  heard  to 
declare  before  1918  that  colleges  and  universities  were 
coming  to  cost  too  much,  and  that  the  educational  needs 
of  the  community  could  be  met  with  a  smaller  outlay.  The 
truth  was,  however,  that  in  twenty  years  a  sea  change  had 
been  wrought  in  the  body  of  higher  education  itself. 
Scientific  knowledge  had  expanded.  There  was  iri'esistable 
public  clamor  for  training  in  new  and  complicated  pro- 
fessional specialties.  The  obligation  of  the  university  to 
foster  research  as  well  as  teaching,  had  become  recognized. 
In  spite  of  the  five-fold  increase  in  their  support,  the  col- 
leges and  universities  were  actually  poorer  in  1918  than 
they  had  been  in  1898 — and  their  professors  were  relative- 
ly less  well  paid.  At  the  time  our  higher  institutions 
passed  under  martial  law  the  dominating  emergency  in 
almost  every  one  was  the  financial  emergency.  Had  there 
been  no  war  the  problem  by  now  would  have  ceased  to  be  a 
problem  of  the  individual  institution.  It  would  have  be- 
come a  national  problem. 

The  war  came.  It  brought  not  only  educational  dis- 
organization. It  also  accentuated  the  financial  difficulties. 
But  its  aftermath  was  more  serious  still.  As  a  result  of 
the  war  the  universities  are  now  subjected  to  a  combina- 
tion of  inexorable  pressures,  partly  economic,  partly 
social,  which  threaten  to  crush  their  vitality. 

The  costs  per  unit  of  instruction,  and  especially  per 
unit  of  physical  maintenance,  have  risen  beyond  all  ex- 
pectation. In  some  departments  of  institutional  activity 
the  unit  costs  have  doubled.  In  others  the  rise  has  not 
been  so  great,  but  colleges  and  universities  have  been 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  151 

forced  to  avail  themselves  of  inferior  service  or  materials. 
The  prices  of  certain  tangible  commodities  will  probable 
decline  in  the  near  future,  but  it  is  not  to  be  hoped  that 
they  will  ever  again  reach  the  pre-war  level.  In  any  event, 
the  prospect  of  future  amelioration  is  of  little  help  to  in- 
stitutions that  are  faced  with  this  year's  and  next  year's 
bills.  As  a  rule  there  is  no  slack  in  college  budgets.  The 
income  from  endowments  and  fees  rarely  if  ever  suffices 
to  meet  all  financial  obligations.  The  appropriations 
made  to  state  institutions  never  quite  equal  institutional 
needs.  Colleges  and  universities,  being  public  service  in- 
stitutions, and  not  businesses  conducted  for  profit,  have 
nothing  laid  by  for  a  rainy  day. 

Not  only  have  the  unit  costs  risen,  but  there  has 
been  in  the  two  years  since  the  armistice  an  unprecedent- 
ed and  wholly  unforseen  increase  in  the  number  of  units. 
The  critic  of  a  few  years  ago  who  deprecated  the  some- 
times undignified  efforts  of  higher  institutions  to  get 
more  students  to  get  more  money  to  get  more  students 
may  derive  a  cynical  satisfaction  from  the  present  pre- 
dicament of  these  same  institutions.  His  satisfaction 
is  not  generally  shared.  The  colleges  of  the  country  are 
literally  smothered  with  students.  Last  year  those  who 
had  been  held  back  by  the  war  poured  in,  and  the  swollen 
enrollments  were  plausibly  attributed  to  the  removal  of 
the  military  dam.  The  dam  has  long  since  gone  out,  how- 
ever, and  still  the  flood  continues.  From  figures  the 
Bureau  of  Education  has  furnished  me,  it  appears  that 
the  median  increase  in  collegiate  enrollments  this  autumn 
amounts  to  ten  percent,  or  double  the  average  increase  of 
the  years  just  preceding  the  war.  Moreover  this  rep- 
resents a  ten  percent  growth  over  the  greatly  inflated  stu- 
dent population  of  1919.  The  prestige  of  higher  educa- 
tion was  enormously  enhanced  by  the  war.  People  who 
never  thought  seriously   about   it  before   are  now  im- 


152  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

pressed  with  its  value  and  are  bound  to  have  it  for  their 
sons  and  daughters.  AVe  are  evidently  dealing  with  a 
tendency  that  promises  to  be  constant.  If  this  prediction 
is  correct,  it  is  instructive  to  let  one 's  statistical  imagina- 
tion roam  ahead  five  years  or  ten.  With  no  likelihood  of  a 
material  reduction  of  basic  costs  and  with  student  bodies 
doubling  in  numbers  in  less  than  a  decade,  certain  prob- 
lems of  university  financing  become  very  sharply  out- 
lined. 

There  is  one  factor  that  enters  into  the  situation. 
It  has  recently  demanded  and  received  serious  attention. 
I  refer  to  the  pay  of  professors.  A  great  many  institu- 
tions— I  believe  a  majority — have  raised  the  salaries  of 
instructors  within  the  last  two  years.  The  increases, 
however,  have  not  generally  been  commensurate  with  the 
needs  of  the  beneficiaries,  nor  have  they  kept  pace  with 
the  rise  in  the  compensation  of  other  intellectual  callings. 
As  a  result  two  tendencies  appear.  There  is  an  alarming 
exodus  from  the  present  membership  of  the  university 
teaching  profession,  and  there  is  a  marked  falling  off  in 
the  supply  of  neophytes. 

The  status  of  the  professor  was  wholly  changed  by 
the  war.  In  the  military  service  and  in  the  numerous 
auxiliary  activities  professors  proved  their  capacity  for 
success  in  other  fields  than  teaching.  Both  as  individuals 
and  as  a  class  they  suddenly  acquired  an  economic  value 
in  the  business  world.  That  cherished  superstition  of  the 
man  of  affairs  that  professors  were  useless  in  all  practical 
undertakings  vanished.  It  will  probably  never  reappear. 
Indeed,  the  heads  of  large  industrial  enterprises  are  now 
beginning  to  turn  to  university  staffs  to  furnish  the 
directors  of  new  and  difficult  projects.  Scores  of  distin- 
guished professors  have  within  the  past  year  forsaken 
teaching  to  accept  business  positions  at  greatly  increased 
salaries.    A  genuine  competition  beween  business  and  the 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  153 

university  for  the  services  of  the  best  mature  minds  has 
thus  been  set  up. 

Naturally  these  conditions  react  unfavorably  on  the 
prospective  supply  of  college  and  university  teachers. 
For  a  number  of  years  there  has  been  a  steady  deteriora- 
tion in  the  quality  of  individuals  choosing  college  teach- 
ing as  a  career.  Even  before  the  war  there  was  little  in 
the  circumstances  of  academic  employment  to  appeal  to 
men  of  vigorous  intellect  or  personality.  On  the  purely 
material  side  they  were  faced  with  the  alternative  of 
celibacy  or  hardship.  In  the  matter  of  social  recognition 
the  college  teacher  has  always  fared  less  well  in  the 
United  States  than  in  most  other  civilized  countries. 
More  and  more  the  teaching  profession  was  becoming 
the  refuge  of  the  timid  and  unambitious — of  course,  with 
notable  exceptions.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that 
the  sudden  relative  decline  of  the  salaries  of  professors 
from  their  already  low  estate,  combined  with  the  increas- 
ing opportunites  for  scientifically  trained  persons  in 
other  fields,  should  bring  about  a  reduction  in  the  number 
of  individuals  preparing  to  become  university  teachers. 
This  career  less  than  ever  attracts  young  people  of 
superior  ability. 

The  serious  import  of  these  tendencies,  not  only  for 
higher  educational  institutions  but  for  the  whole  intel- 
lectual development  of  America,  does  not  need  to  be 
urged.  The  future  leaders  of  the  nation  must  not  receive 
their  final  training  at  the  hands  of  persons  of  inferior 
capacity  or  character.  The  task  of  providing  for  the 
nation's  needs  in  the  field  of  scientific  research  cannot  be 
left  to  those  who  are  too  feeble  or  too  spiritless  to  earn  a 
living  in  some  other  occupation.  The  position  of  intel- 
lectual parity  with  the  leading  nations  of  Europe  which 
the  United  States  has  hardly  won,  cannot  be  maintained 
except  by  the  best  endowed  men  and  women  the  country 


154  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

produces.  The  luiiversity  must  compete  with  the  busi- 
ness and  professional  world  for  the  services  of  these  men 
and  women.  It  does  not  need  to  outbid  the  business 
world  in  cash.  It  does  need  to  fui'nish  material  rewards 
equivalent  to  those  offered  by  the  other  professions.  This 
means  that  the  present  scale  of  compensation  of  univer- 
sity teachers  must  be  at  least  doubled. 

These  are  major  elements  in  the  financial  emergency 
now  confronting  American  colleges  and  universities.  How 
much  does  higher  education  cost!  Higher  education  in 
1920-21  costs  in  the  aggregate  about  six  times  what  it 
cost  in  1898.  The  average  cost  per  student  is  about  three 
times  as  great.  But  higher  education  in  the  present  year 
of  grace  costs  about  half  what  it  ought  to  cost,  if  it  is  to 
satisfy  the  demands  of  the  public  and  sustain  the  intel- 
lectual Life  of  the  United  States. 

Although  the  problem  of  financing  higher  education 
is  national  in  scope  and  of  national  concern,  it  must  under 
our  plan  of  organization  be  solved  locally.  The  privately 
supported  institutions — and  the  vast  majority  of  colleges 
and  universities  are  privately  supported — are  endeavor- 
ing to  solve  it  by  increasing  their  endowments  and  in- 
creasing their  fees.  Publicly  supported  institutions  must 
rely  on  state  and  city  appropriations.  The  source  of  these 
appropriations  is  the  revenue  derived  from  taxation.  In 
this  conference  we  are,  I  take  it,  chiefly  concerned  with 
those  aspects  of  the  problem  that  affect  state  universi- 
ties. Can  states  raise  by  taxation  enough  money  to 
double  the  present  appropriations  to  their  universities 
and  to  continue  to  increase  miiversity  appropriations  in 
accordance  with  the  developing  needs  of  these  institu- 
tions ?  I  approach  this  question  with  some  timidity,  be- 
cause I  do  not  claim  to  be  an  expert  on  the  subject  of 
taxation.  What  I  shall  offer  you  is  the  opinion  of  a  lay- 
man who  has  had  perhaps  unusual  opportunities  to  study 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  ISS 

the  public  institutions  of  several  states  and  to  estimate 
the  resources  on  which  their  support  depends.  First, 
therefore,  let  me  present  certain  general  considerations. 

The  majority  of  the  states  offer  through  state  insti- 
tutions the  principal  kinds  of  professional  education  and 
advanced  general  education  to  everyone  who  is  mentally 
able  to  profit  by  it,  either  free  of  charge  or  at  a  slight 
fraction  of  its  actual  cost.  No  other  country  has  pursued 
so  liberal  a  policy.  It  is  true  that  the  principal  univer- 
sities in  several  European  countries  are  state  universities. 
But  in  most  of  these  countries  the  possible  number  of 
students  is  much  more  strictly  limited  by  the  conditions 
of  secondary  education.  The  United  States  has  superim- 
posed upon  a  system  of  free  public  secondary  schools,  a 
system  of  free,  or  practically  free,  public  universities. 
Both  systems  are  relatively  new.  The  mass  of  the  people 
is  only  just  beginning  to  appreciate  the  opportunities 
thus  offered  and  to  take  advantage  of  them.  It  is  not  yet 
definitely  proved  whether  under  our  scheme  of  social  or- 
ganization this  plan  can  be  carried  out  in  all  its  theoreti- 
cal integrity;  whether  our  political  units  can  afford  to 
provide  free  higher  education  to  every  citizen  who  is  intel- 
lectually competent  to  avail  himself  of  it.  Until  definite 
proof  is  produced  we  shall  have  to  admit  that  the  present 
educational  policy  of  states  is  to  some  extent  experi- 
mental. 

In  default  of  actual  proof  there  are  certain  bits  of 
circumstantial  evidence  which  strongly  support  the  ex- 
isting theory.  For  example,  it  is  easily  demonstrable  that 
those  communities  and  those  sections  of  the  county  which 
maintain  the  best  schools  and  which  spend  the  most  on 
higher  education  are  the  most  prosperous  and  are  able  to 
bear  the  burden  of  educational  expenditure  with  relative 
ease.  From  which  the  familiar  argument  is  derived  that 
increased  outlays  for  education  are  more  than  made  good 


156  EDUCATIOK-U  SESSION 

by  the  increase  in  wealth  that  results  from  them.  The 
same  argument  applies  to  scientific  research.  "While  not 
all  research  is  materially  productive,  research  in  the 
aggregate  has  returned  in  wealth  to  those  communities 
that  have  supported  it  many  times  its  cost. 

However,  recent  studies  have  revealed  facts  that  seem 
at  first  glance  to  impair  somewhat  the  theory  just  stated. 
General  property  values  in  the  communities  that  especial- 
ly foster  education  have  not  increased  in  the  past  forty 
years  as  fast  as  school  costs.  In  these  communities,  ' '  tax 
rates  have  been  raised,"  public  debts  have  been  aug- 
mented, and  ' '  a  larger  percentage  of  all  revenue  has  been 
devoted  to  educational  purposes."*  Unless  further  an- 
alyzed, these  facts  appear  to  indicate  that  communities 
have  already  passed  the  point  of  expenditure  where 
money  invested  in  public  education  brings  a  commensu- 
rate return.  But  further  analysis  reveals  the  nub  of  the 
whole  question.  This  may  be  stated  in  two  brief  proposi- 
tions. First,  general  property  values,  as  recorded  by  tax 
assessors,  tend  to  increase  more  slowly  than  does  the 
actual  wealth  of  communities.  Second,  in  nearly  every 
state,  tangible  property  is  very  unequally  assessed  and 
in  general  grossly  underassessed.  Let  me  add  a  word  in 
elaboration  of  the  second  proposition. 

State  systems  of  taxation  are  notoriously  lacking  in 
uniformity  and  notoriously  unscientific.  Most  of  them  are 
haphazard  developments,  the  product  of  political  compro- 
mise and  of  the  more  or  less  successful  efforts  of  large 
property  interests  to  escape  their  just  share  of  the  public 
burden.  For  example,  in  a  certain  southern  state,  whose 
educational  system  I  once  investigated,  assessments  are 
based  on  twenty-two  percent  of  the  true  value  of  property. 
Land  rich  in  coal  and  iron  deposits  is  taxed  as  farm  land 

*  See  Trend  of  School  Costs,  by  W.  R.  Burgess,  Russell  Sage  Foundation, 

Educational  Monograph,  1920. 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  157 

and  assessed  at  about  one-fifth  of  its  value  for  agricultural 
purposes.  The  legislative  agents  of  the  great  foreign 
corporations  have  thus  far  prevented  any  substantial 
rectification  of  this  injustice.  As  a  consequence  the  state 
is  unable  to  support  its  state  government  or  its  higher 
schools.  This  may  be  an  extreme  case,  but  similar  in- 
fluences have  been  at  work  in  other  states  with  somewhat 
similar  results. 

The  whole  domain  of  state  taxation  demands  investi- 
gation. In  former  years  the  expenditures  for  public  pur- 
poses were  everywhere  insignificant.  The  abounding  re- 
sources of  most  commonwealths  easily  yielded  as  a  by- 
product the  little  that  was  required.  That  time  has  passed 
into  the  limbo  of  the  fathers.  The  state  is  now  the  fiscal 
agent  of  the  people  in  a  vast  variety  of  common  under- 
takings. The  wealth  of  all  states  has  increased  greatly  in 
amount,  but  not  in  availability.  In  justice  to  the  public 
the  facts  should  be  made  known  and  methods  devised  to 
locate  and  to  tax  the  state's  true  financial  resources. 

I  am  a  believer  in  instruction  by  means  of  concrete 
problems  and  projects.  What  more  vital  problem  in  eco- 
nomics is  there  than  this?  What  task  more  appropriate 
for  the  experts  of  a  state  university  faculty  and  their  ad- 
vanced students?  A  series  of  studies  of  state  systems  of 
taxation  made  by  the  state  universities  of  the  several 
states  would  furnish  the  basis  for  important  reforms  and 
would  be  a  most  useful  contribution  to  the  science  of  pop- 
ular government  in  America.  I  am  aware  that  professors 
in  a  few  state  universities  have  already  published  such 
studies.  I  venture  to  commend  their  example  to  the  de- 
partments of  economics  of  state  universities  generally. 

The  future  of  state  higher  institutions  is  intimately 
bound  up  with  the  development  of  state  taxation.  Exist- 
ing methods  of  assessment  and  apportionment  of  taxes 
either  have  already  failed,  or  will  shortly  fail,  to  yield  the 


158  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

amounts  required  by  the  rising  cost  of  state  universities. 
The  universities  themselves  must  not  stand  helpless  in  the 
face  of  this  situation.  The  obligation  is  upon  them  to  in- 
terpret their  services  to  the  state  and  their  needs,  and  to 
demonstrate  how  these  needs  can  be  met.  In  the  process 
they  may  expect  to  encounter  the  tenacious  opposition  of 
those  interests  which  have  heretofore  obstructed  every 
effort  to  promote  a  more  equitable  adjustment  of  the 
state 's  financial  burdens.  But  the  cause  is  worth  fighting 
for.  The  welfare  of  the  states  and  of  the  nation  is  involved 
in  the  maintenance  of  universities  at  the  highest  level 
of  efficiency.  The  wealth  to  maintain  them  is  there. 
Through  the  very  operation  of  the  universities  themselves 
it  will  be  there  in  increasing  amounts.  States  can  afford 
to  support  their  higher  institutions.  They  must  be  shown 
that  they  can  not  afford  not  to. 


THE  SUPPLY  OF  ADEQUATELY   TBAINED   UNI- 
VERSITY TEACHERS 


FREIDERICK    J.    E.    WOODBRIDGE;,    1,1. .D. 

Dean,  Columbia  University 


Really  good  teachers  are  admittedly  rare.  To  note 
their  scarcity  just  now,  however,  is  to  do  more  than  call 
attention  to  a  platitude.  For  it  is  very  difiScult  to  find  for 
teaching  positions,  both  in  the  university  and  elsewhere, 
those  who  can  fill  them  with  reasonable  success  and  dis- 
tinction. We  are  acutely  conscious  that  our  national 
scholarship  is  not  what  it  ought  to  be.  There  is  a  dearth 
of  good  books,  able  teachers  and  intellectual  leadership.  A 
country  like  ours,  into  which  has  been  poured  such  a 
variety  of  stimulating  influences  and  which  has  been  blest 
with  such  an  abundance  of  goods,  ought  to  make  annually 
contributions  to  learning  which  would  give  us  a  position 
in  the  world  of  scholarship  at  least  equal  to  that  of  the 
countries  with  which  we  like  to  compare  ourselves.  But 
the  comparison  is  not  gratifying.  We  are  forced  to  admit 
that  in  spite  of  a  multiplication  of  colleges  and  universi- 
ties, and  in  spite  of  a  popular  enthusiasm  for  education 
which  often  causes  foreigners  to  wonder  and  admire,  our 
system  of  education  is  rarely  productive  of  intellectual 
greatness  and  distinction.  Nor  is  it  productive  of  a  read- 
ing public  large  enough  to  make  a  steady  and  profitable 
demand  for  books  of  more  than  temporary  value.  The 
number  of  text-books  is  large,  but  the  number  of  sustain- 
ed and  constructive  treatises  is  small.  Learning  does  not 
flourish  among  us. 

If  we  confine  our  attention  to  our  universities  and  ask 
why  it  is  that  the  supply  of  really  able  men  for  them  is  so 


160  EDUCATION.AL  SESSION 

inadequate,  the  answer  is,  I  think,  simple.  Our  system  of 
education  is  not  intended  to  produce  them.  In  other  words, 
in  education  our  attention  has  not  been  given  significantly 
to  scholarship,  but  to  something  else,  namely,  to  industry 
and  alertness.  Our  system  is  designed  to  produce  not  a 
certain  quality  of  mind,  but  a  certain  type  of  person,  not 
a  scholar  who  loves  learning,  but  an  American,  alert  and 
industrious,  fitted  to  meet  the  demands  of  American  life. 
That  design  has  been  eloquently  advocated  by  college 
presidents  and  by  those  who  have  shaped  the  policies  of 
our  normal  schools  and  teachers'  colleges.  It  has  been 
Avoven  into  the  methods  and  curricula  of  our  schools 
generally. 

Since  this  has  been  the  dominant  note  in  education  for 
several  decades,  we  ought  not  to  be  surprised  at  what  we 
are  now  hearing.  Nor  should  we  show  the  bad  taste  of 
complaining  violently  about  it,  for  we  have  done  reason- 
ably well  the  thing  we  have  been  trying  to  do.  Our 
teachers  are,  as  a  rule,  industrious,  alert,  and  practical- 
minded  ;  only  they  are  not,  as  a  rule,  scholars.  By  that  I 
mean  that  they  teach  history  without  being  historians, 
and  mathematics  without  being  mathematicians.  They 
pay  much  attention  to  improving  the  methods  and  tech- 
nique of  instruction,  but  little  to  the  exploration  and 
mastery  of  subject-matter.  They  teach  from  a  sense  of 
social  obligation,  rather  than  from  a  love  of  what  they 
teach.  Our  schools  are  consequently  social  rather  than 
intellectual  in  character.  If  our  teachers,  as  Dean  E.  A. 
Cross  has  disquietingly  pointed  out  in  the  July  Yale 
Review,  remain  on  the  average  but  a  few  years  in  the 
service,  part  of  the  reason  is  clearly  that  industry  and 
alertness,  when  not  possessed  by  the  love  of  learning,  find 
their  significant  rewards  elsewhere.  And  if  our  students 
are  largely  absorbed  by  things  not  in  the  curriculum, 
part  of  the  reason  is  again  the  same.    In  short,  the  state 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  161 

of  the  county's  scholarship  and  learning  is  pretty  much 
what  we  should  expect  it  to  be  from  the  character  of  the 
education  we  have  been  giving  to  our  people.  Aiming  at 
industry  and  alertness,  we  have  largely  succeeded  in  at- 
taining them,  so  that  the  product  of  our  education  is  on 
the  average  a  person  adaptable,  quick,  resourceful  and  de- 
pendable. But  aiming  at  these  virtures  so  predominantly, 
we  have  produced  scholars  only  rarely  and  incidentally. 
So  I  repeat  that  the  scarcity  of  adequately  trained  univer- 
sity teachers  is  due  fundamentally  to  the  fact  that  our 
system  of  education  is  not  intended  to  produce  them. 

There  is  another  reason  which  lately  has  been  made 
much  of;  namely,  the  inadequate  salaries  of  the  teaching 
profession.  I  do  not  think  this  reason  is  sound.  But  in 
saying  this  I  would  not  be  misunderstood.  I  would  give 
no  aid  or  comfort  to  the  enemy  who  think  that  teachers  are 
paid  all  they  deserve.  They  are  underpaid  shamefully. 
But  in  my  opinion  these  shameful  salaries  are  the  effects 
rather  than  the  causes  of  the  state  of  learning  in  the  land. 
If  emphasis  is  put  on  industry  and  alertness  instead  of 
on  learning,  the  rewards  will  go  to  the  former.  If  scholar- 
ship is  not  prized,  there  will  be  no  prizes  for  scholars.  We 
ought  not  to  be  deceived  in  this  matter.  To  pay  better 
salaries  for  doing  simply  what  we  have  been  doing,  may, 
very  naturally,  result  in  getting  more  competent  persons 
to  do  it  and  to  keep  them  at  it  longer,  but  it  will  not  neces- 
sarily result  in  doing  something  else.  Salaries  should  be 
raised  out  of  sheer  decency  and  humanity,  but  we  only 
trick  ourselves  if  we  suppose  that  better  salaries  alone  will 
have  much  effect  on  increasing  the  supply  of  the  type  of 
teachers  we  have  begun  to  feel  we  need.  If  they  do  not 
exist,  they  can  not  be  bought.  If  money  is  offered  them, 
they  must  be  produced  before  they  can  be  sold.  So  we  are 
brought  back  again  to  the  fact  that  our  methods  of  pro- 
ducing them  are  not  adequate. 


162  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

I  can  not  let  this  matter  of  salaries  go  without  a  pro- 
test and  an  admission.  The  protest  is  against  the  opinion 
that  teachers  are  paid  to  teach,  and  the  admission  is  that 
many  of  our  colleges  and  universities  could  pay  better 
salaries  if  they  were  not  so  extravagant.  A  teacher's 
value  and  usefulness  should  not  be  measured  by  economic 
standards.  It  is  neither  sentimentality  nor  hyperbole  to 
say  that  the  good  teacher's  value  is  above  price.  His 
salary  is  usually  his  only  income  and  is  paid  him  that  he 
may  live  decently.  It  is  not  paid  him  in  exchange  for 
services  rendered.  I  call  to  mind  an  old  story  taken  from 
the  life  of  Charlemagne  by  the  Monk  of  St.  Gall. 

When  Charlemagne  ' '  had  begun  to  reign  alone  in  the 
western  part  of  the  world,"  so  the  story  runs,  "and  the 
pursuit  of  learning  had  been  almost  forgotten  throughout 
all  his  realm.  .  .  two  Scots  came  from  Ireland  to  the  coast 
of  Gaul  with  certain  traders  of  Britain.  These  Scotchmen 
were  unrivalled  for  their  skill  in  sacred  and  secular  learn- 
ing :  and  day  by  day,  when  the  crowd  gathered  round  them 
for  traffic,  they  exhibited  no  wares  for  sale,  but  cried  out 
and  said,  'Ho,  everyone  that  desires  wisdom,  let  him  draw 
near  and  take  it  at  our  hands;  for  it  is  wisdom  that  we 
have  for  sale ! ' 

"Now  they  declared  that  they  had  wisdom  for  sale 
because  they  said  that  the  people  cared  not  for  what  was 
given  freely,  but  only  for  what  was  sold,  hoping  that  they 
might  be  incited  to  purchase  wisdom  along  with  other 
wares;  and  also,  perhaps,  hoping  that  by  their  announce- 
ment they  themselves  might  become  a  wonder  and  marvel 
to  men;  which  indeed  turned  out  to  be  the  case.  For  so 
long  did  they  make  their  proclamation  that  in  the  end 
those  who  wondered  at  these  men,  or  perhaps  thought 
them  insane,  brought  the  matter  to  the  ears  of  King 
Charles,  who  always  loved  and  sought  after  wisdom. 
Wherefore  he  ordered  them  to  come  with  all  speed  into  his 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  163 

presence  and  asked  them  whether  it  were  true,  as  fame 
reported  of  them,  that  they  had  brought  wisdom  with 
them.  They  answered,  'We  both  possess  it  and  are 
ready  to  give  it,  in  the  name  of  God,  to  those  who  seek  it 
worthily.'  Again  he  asked  them  what  price  they  asked 
for  it;  and  they  answered,  'We  ask  no  price,  0  King:  but 
ask  only  for  a  fit  place  for  teaching  and  quick  minds  to 
teach;  and  besides,  food  to  eat  and  raiment  to  put  on,  for 
without  these  we  can  not  accomplish  our  pilgrimage.'  " 
Even  the  Dark  Ages  may  teach  us  something  in  the 
matter  of  teachers'  salaries.  What  society  owes  teachers 
is  that  adequate  provision  without  which  they  can  not  ac- 
complish their  pilgrimage,  and  a  royal  recognition  of  the 
services  they  render. 

Many  of  our  colleges  and  universities  could  pay  better 
salaries  if  they  were  not  so  extravagant.  I  do  not  mean 
that  they,  as  is  often  the  charge,  spend  money  needlessly 
on  buildings  and  grounds  and  on  material  equipment.  A 
place  of  learning  should  be  a  place  of  beauty,  well-supplied 
with  all  the  instruments  of  knowledge.  It  should  be  a  fit 
place  for  teaching.  I  mean,  rather,  that  many  of  our  col- 
leges and  universities  spend  money  needlessly  on  teaching 
itself.  They  have  expanded  the  curriculmn  beyond  all 
reasonable  and  necessary  demands,  and  they  have  spent 
the  same  amount  of  money,  and  aften  more,  on  teaching 
the  incompetent  as  they  have  spent  on  teaching  the  com- 
petent. The  departmental  control  of  the  curriculum  which 
has  so  largely  superceded  faculty  control,  has  been  attend- 
ed by  a  great  expansion  in  the  number  of  courses  offered. 
The  tendency  of  departments  has  been  to  cover  the  whole 
field  of  their  subjects,  to  offer  highly  specialized  courses 
in  the  interest  of  a  large  and  abundant  offering  and  to 
make  it  possible  for  students  to  fulfill  the  requirements  of 
residence  wholly  within  the  department  itself.  The  cata- 
logues of  our  larger  universities  especially  afford  ample 


164  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

proof  of  this  tendency.  But  confession  is  good  for  the 
soul,  and  I  may  take  my  own  university  as  an  example. 
Hard  hit  by  the  war,  we  were  forced  to  retrench.  A  care- 
ful examination  of  our  program  of  studies  proved  con- 
clusively, even  to  those  who  were  likely  to  lose  their 
positions  as  a  consequence,  that  it  was  possible  to  cut 
$200,000  out  of  the  annual  budgets  of  departments  with- 
out in  the  least  impairing  the  educational  efficiency  of  the 
University  or  imposing  additional  burdens  on  anybody. 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  so  drastic  a  cut  was  not  made, 
because  of  the  personal  injustice  it  would  involve.  But  it 
is  important  to  say  that  this  examination  and  the  steps 
taken  in  consequence  of  it,  were  no  small  aid  in  making 
later  substantial  increases  in  salaries,  and,  what  is  more, 
promoting  public  confidence  in  our  administration.  The 
catalogues  of  other  universities  have  convinced  me  that 
our  situation  was  not  exceptional.  They  show  an  absurd 
rivalry  between  institutions  in  the  splendor  of  their 
offerings.  Indeed  the  chief  objection,  aside  from  personal 
injustices,  which  was  raised  to  our  efforts  to  retrench, 
was  the  poor  showing  our  offering  would  make  when 
compared  with  our  neighbors.  In  order  to  keep  public 
confidence  and  win  public  support  and  at  the  same  time 
administer  our  funds  with  economy,  this  form  of  ex- 
travagance which  I  have  been  considering  should  be 
dealt  wdth  energetically. 

The  second  form  of  extravagance  can  not  be  set  forth 
as  it  should  be  without  a  very  extended  exposition.  I 
must  leave  the  statement  of  it  in  a  very  summary  and  dog- 
matic form.  We  are  wasting  the  time  of  teachers  and  the 
money  which  ought  to  be  used  to  increase  salaries,  by 
trying  to  keep  the  incompetent  up  to  a  passing  mark, 
when  we  ought  rather  to  be  forcing  the  incompetent  to 
hire  tutors  on  their  own  account.  The  opinion  seems  to 
prevail  that  tuition  fees  are  paid  not  as  a  partial  support 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  165 

for  our  institutions,  but  in  order  to  assure  parents  that 
their  children  will  not  be  allowed  to  idle.  A  student 
recently  told  a  colleague  that  he  thought  it  was  the 
teacher 's  business  to  see  to  it  that  he,  the  student,  did  not 
receive  a  mark  below  B.  The  student  illustrates  an  atti- 
tude. Mr.  Dooley,  you  may  remember,  caricatures  it  by 
having  the  president  ask  the  freshman  what  course  of 
study  he  wishes  his  professors  to  pursue  for  him.  How 
true  it  is  that  the  incompetent  instead  of  the  competent 
have  come  to  set  the  pace  in  college  education  especial- 
ly, is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  best  students,  although 
the  maximum  number  of  hours  is  nominally  eighteen, 
can  get  away,  as  they  put  it,  with  twenty,  twenty-four 
and  even  thirty  hours  with  high  marks.  A  system  of 
education  where  all  this  is  possible  costs  the  institution 
heavily.  The  only  argument  in  defense  of  it  that  seems 
to  be  at  all  sound,  is  the  argument  that  society  profits  by 
it.  But  the  profit  to  society  is  not  disclosed  by  an  increase 
in  the  number  of  those  who  love  learning  and  prize 
scholarship,  but  by  an  increase  in  the  number  of  those 
who  have  been  subjected  to  a  training  in  industry  and 
alertness. 

This  brings  me  back  to  what  seems  to  be  the  princi- 
pal matter  in  the  theme  we  are  considering.  Indeed,  the 
important  bearings  of  these  admissions  of  extravagance 
are  not  all  in  the  direction  of  economy,  but  in  the  direc- 
tion of  education.  With  a  system  in  which  emphasis 
falls  primarily  on  industry  and  alertness,  in  which  as  a 
consequence  so  much  attention  is  paid  to  the  daily  round 
and  the  common  task,  in  which  so  much  time  and  so 
much  money  are  spent  in  keeping  the  idle  and  incom- 
petent at  work,  and  in  which  so  much  energy  is  expended 
in  providing  a  wide  and  varied  program  of  studies — 
with  such  a  system  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  an 
atmosphere  is    created  in  which    scholarship  flourishes. 


166  EDUCATION.AL  SESSION 

Something  else  will  flourish,  and  that  something  may 
indeed  be  admirable  and  to  a  large  extent  what  a  coun- 
try like  ours  needs.  But  unless  the  system  is  modified, 
there  is  no  hope  of  expecting  it  to  yield  what  it  is  not  in- 
tended to  yield.  Unless  it  is  modified,  we  shall  go  on 
promoting  industry  and  alertness  and  not  promoting 
learning.  AVe  shall  do  this  more  effectively  as  we  secure 
more  means  to  provide  more  competent  persons  to  do  it, 
but  that,  as  I  see  it,  is  all. 

The  chief  source  from  which  university  teachers  are 
drawn  is  our  graduate  schools.  Our  attention  should 
be  directed,  therefore,  first,  to  what  our  graduate  stu- 
dents are  like,  and,  secondly,  to  the  sort  of  disclipline  to 
which  they  are  subjected.  If  there  are  desirable  modifica- 
tions to  be  made  in  our  system  of  education  generally,  it 
is  easier  and  more  effective  to  make  them  at  the  top  than 
at  the  bottom,  because  by  making  them  at  the  top  smaller 
numbers  are  involved  and  at  the  same  time  those  who  are 
to  take  positions  of  leadership  are  immediately  affected. 
Our  schools  and  colleges  are  not  likely  to  be  much  chang- 
ed unless  there  are  injected  into  them  people  with  the 
desire,  wisdom  and  ability  to  change  them.  On  our 
graduate  schools  rests  the  prime  responsibility  for  the 
production  of  scholars  and  the  promotion  of  the  love  of 
learning  generally.  They  can  not  avoid  that  responsi- 
bility by  complaining  that  the  material  sent  them  is 
poor  when  judged  from  the  point  of  view  of  what  they 
are  expected  to  make  of  it.  Such  an  avoidance  involves 
one  in  an  unbroken  circle  of  complaint.  The  university 
blames  the  college,  the  college  blames  the  schools,  the 
schools  blame  the  colleges,  and  the  colleges  blame  the 
university.  The  fact,  rather  than  mutual  recriminations, 
is  the  crucial  matter,  and  the  fact  is  that  our  graduate 
schools  have  no  other  material  than  what  is  sent  them 
and  they  are  responsible  for  what  they  make  of  it. 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  167 

First,  then,  of  the  graduate  student.  In  speaking  of 
him  I  have  no  wish  to  defame  him  or  to  put  myself  in 
that  vicious  circle  which  I  have  just  now  condemned.  He 
is — and  I  speak  of  all  but  the  rare  exceptions — poor 
material;  but  poor  material  in  what  respect?  Certainly 
not  in  respect  of  industry  and  alertness,  nor  in  respect  of 
enthusiasm,  energy,  and  a  solid  ambition  to  succeed.  He 
earnestly  desires  to  get  on  and  better  himself  and  his 
reputation,  and  he  ordinarily  comes  to  the  university  at 
the  cost  of  much  self-denial  and  with  the  knowledge  that 
for  four  years  his  life  is  apt  to  be  one  of  poverty,  robbed 
of  many  comforts  and  conveniences.  Morally  he  is  not 
poor  material  at  all.  But  he  is  that  intellectually.  Often 
he  is  not  even  educated,  if  by  education  one  means  having 
possession  of  the  instruments  by  which  knowledge  is  at- 
tained and  held.  He  rarely  has  the  habit  of  reading  in 
any  language  but  his  own,  and  in  his  own  he  usually  reads 
fragmentarily.  Very  often  he  has  not  that  logical  com- 
mand of  his  own  speech  which  enables  one  to  express  one- 
self clearly  and  accurately,  and  to  read  with  understand- 
ing. He  is  also  apt  to  be  very  deficient  in  logical  analy- 
sis. So  far  as  logic  is  concerned,  his  interest  is  in  classi- 
fying and  appraising.  Ask  him,  for  instance,  to  give 
some  account  of  his  own  government  and  he  will  tell  you 
that  it  is  a  democracy  or  a  republic  and  give  you  some  es- 
timate of  its  excellence.  He  will  not  give  you  an  analysis 
of  its  constitution  or  exhibit  the  reasons  which  underly 
its  provisions.  Sometimes  I  think  this  failure  in  logical 
analysis  is  his  principal  intellectual  defect.  Perhaps 
that  is  due  to  my  experience  as  a  teacher  with  him,  for 
I  find  it  very  rare  indeed  to  secure  from  graduate  stu- 
dents in  philosophy  a  clear  and  logical  exposition  of  any 
philosophical  classi'?.  What  I  get  is  usually  a  description 
of  its  contents,  a  classification  of  the  system,  and  a  pro- 
nouncement on  its  validity.    Again  the  graduate  student 


168  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

is  not  equipped  to  deal  with  quantities  and  quantitative 
relations.  Mathematics,  not  as  a  specific  branch  of  know- 
ledge, but  as  an  instrument  of  inquiry  is  generally  un- 
known to  him.  He  can  b<5  shown  how  to  draw  averages, 
calculate  coefficients  of  correlation  and  probable  errors, 
but  he  very  rarely  understands  the  great  instrument  he 
is  using.  And  the  same  is  strangely  true  of  the  material 
instruments  at  his  command.  He  can  observe  and 
measure  with  them,  but  he  does  not  understand  how  they 
are  aids  to  his  observation  or  afford  units  for  his  meas- 
urement. In  short,  he  is  only  inadequately  equipped  with 
the  essential  instruments  of  inquiry. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  knowledge  itself,  he  is 
poorly  prepared  for  advanced  studies.  His  knowledge  is 
fragmentary  and  undigested.  On  this  score,  I  imagine, 
there  are  more  complaints  than  on  any  other.  On  them 
I  shall  not  dwell,  but  I  should  like  to  point  out  an  im- 
portant fact  connected  with  this  matter.  It  is  this:  the 
choice  of  subjects  by  graduate  students  does  not  repre- 
sent, as  a  rule,  a  really  matured  interest  in  the  subject, 
but  rather  an  incipient  or  prospective  interest  in  it.  Often 
one  subject  is  just  as  good  to  them  as  another  if  it 
promises  either  interest  or  opportunity.  They  want  to 
teach,  but  many  of  them  do  not  care  what  they  teach.  In 
other  words,  they  are  usually  guided  in  their  choice  of 
subjects  by  something  extraneous  to  the  subjects  them- 
selves, rather  than  by  the  hold  the  subjects  already  have 
on  their  minds.  And  this  lack  of  maturity  in  knowledge 
is  accompanied  by  a  lack  of  maturity  in  intellectual 
habits.  Graduate  students  are  not  as  a  rule  intellectual- 
ly independent  and  self-reliant.  Their  minds  have  not 
been  emancipated  from  tutelage.  They  ask  for  and  desire 
mental  direction  and  supervision  of  a  very  elementary 
sort.  They  want  their  work  planned  and  mapped  out  for 
them.    That  work  is  graduate  only  in  name,  and  puts  me 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  169 

in  mind   of  Professor  Dewey's   definition   of  graduate 
work  as  work  done  by  a  graduate  student. 

But  why  go  on  with  this  recital?  It  is  unpleasant, 
but  it  is  a  summary  of  what  I  have  heard  and  seen  repeat- 
edly. The  graduate  student  is  a  favorite  theme  for  com- 
plaint in  university  circles.  But  he  should  not  be  com- 
plained of.  I  have  described  him  not  to  condemn  him.  He 
is  not  responsible  for  what  he  is.  He  is  the  natural  pro- 
duct of  the  education  he  has  received,  and  it  is  greatly 
to  his  credit  that  he  none  the  less  wishes  to  be  counted 
among  those  who  seek  wisdom  even  while  he  knows  that 
his  reward  in  worldly  goods  would  be  richer  if  he  sought 
something  else. 

The  complaint  which  is  just  should  be  lodged  against 
our  graduate  schools.  They  are  largely  responsible  for 
what  the  graduate  student  is  because  the  dicipline  to 
which  they  subject  him  is  not  of  a  type  to  emancipate 
his  mind,  put  him  in  an  atmosphere  of  intellectual  free- 
dom and  responsibility,  or  force  upon  him  habits  of  in- 
dependent study  and  inquiry.  It  is  rather  of  a  type 
which  prolongs  the  intellectual  attitude  and  habits  of 
undergraduate  days,  subjects  the  student  to  tutelage  and 
supervision,  and  imposes  upon  him  a  system  of  restric- 
tions and  a  routine  which  are  often  much  more  excessive 
than  any  he  has  known  in  college.  There  is  hardly  a  grad- 
uate school  in  the  land  which  does  not  require  that  the 
program  of  studies  of  a  graduate  student  must  be  approv- 
ed by  some  professor,  committee  or  dean.  Often  this  ap- 
proval falls  upon  the  dean,  putting  thus  upon  that  gentle- 
man a  duty  which  only  omniscience  can  properly  per- 
form. The  student's  work  is  planned  for  him,  and  very 
often  the  amount  of  it  is  actually  defined  in  terms  of  the 
number  of  hours  per  week  or  year  he  is  expected  to  be 
occupied.  We  once  said  four  full  courses  a  session,  and 
defined  a  full  course  without  a  blush  as  ''a  course  of 


170  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

study  designed  to  occupy  a  quarter  of  a  student 's  time. ' ' 
The  scheme  of  study  is  highly  departmentalized,  so  that 
the  student  tends  to  be  restricted  within  the  bounds  of 
the  department  of  his  choice.  There  are  hundreds  of 
students  in  departments  devoted  to  literature,  history, 
economics,  politics  and  sociology  who  never  pursue  or 
have  time  to  pursue  courses  in  the  history  of  philosophy, 
ethics  or  psychology.  There  are  hundreds  of  students  of 
science  whose  intellectual  horizon  is  bounded  by  the 
laboratory.  Recently  I  received  a  letter  asking  if  it  were 
really  possible  at  Columbia  for  a  graduate  student  in 
science  to  take  as  a  part  of  his  program  of  studies  a 
course  in  singing.  I  replied  that  I  was  happy  to  say  that 
we  rejoiced  when  scientists  sang.  The  graduate  student 
is  not  a  free  student,  free  to  take  what  courses  he  chooses 
and  do  what  work  in  them  he  chooses,  and  free  to  take 
the  responsibility  for  his  education  on  his  own  shoulders. 
The  responsibility  for  his  choice  and  his  work  falls  on  his 
professors. 

His  professors  become  as  a  consequence  so  over- 
worked in  caring  for  the  students  that  they  have  little 
time  left  for  caring  for  their  subjects,  and  they  are  tired. 
They  have  devised  elaborate  schemes  of  courses  and 
patiently  supervise  the  work  of  students  in  them,  report- 
ing grades  and  credits  to  the  registrar.  There  are  few 
graduate  schools  in  which  a  system  of  course  grades  and 
credits  is  not  used  to  mark  the  progress  of  the  student  and 
to  determine  his  eligibility  to  come  up  for  a  degree.  His 
study  and  proficiencj^  are  routined.  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
graduate  students  come  to  regard  graduate  work  as  main- 
ly a  matter  of  courses  and  credits  and  machinery?  Is  it 
any  wonder  that  they  go  from  university  to  university 
with  their  little  credit  book  in  their  hands  containing  the 
precious  entries  of  their  stock  of  knowledge  and  ask  if 
these  credits  will  count?    I  long  to  be  able  to  say  to  them: 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  171 

**No,  my  dear,  nothing  counts  but  what  you  know."  But 
since  they  are  conscious  of  their  industry,  they  think  they 
are  unjustly  treated  if  asked  to  show  the  scholar's 
mastery  of  a  subject.  This  mastery  can  be  shown  only  by 
searching  and  comprehensive  examinations.  Experience 
has  proved  again  and  again  that  course  credits  are  no 
evidence  of  it.  The  reason  is  simple.  To  mark  students 
for  the  assigned  work  in  courses  compels  the  teacher  to  ac- 
commodate the  work  to  his  own  and  the  student's  time. 
He  and  they  can  work  only  so  many  hours  a  day.  The  in- 
evitable result  is  the  discipline  of  the  school  and  the 
schoolmaster,  not  the  freedom  of  the  university. 

There  are  other  evidences  of  the  fact  that  our  gradu- 
ate schools  are  too  largely  places  of  immaturity.  But  there 
is  no  pleasure  in  enumerating  them.  And  there  really  is 
no  need.  I  have  said  nothing  which  has  not  been  said  to 
me  countless  times  and  which  is  not  supported  by  knowl- 
edge and  experience.  The  facts  are  well-known.  I  have 
indicated  that  the  facts  are  consequences  of  doing  some- 
thing praiseworthy  in  itself,  of  aiming  at  something 
which  is  by  no  means  to  be  despised.  But  if  we  wish 
consequences  of  a  different  sort  in  addition,  clearly  a 
different  procedure  is  indicated.  Scholars  can  grow 
only  in  a  scholarly  atmosphere.  That  atmosphere  our 
graduate  schools  ought  to  provide.  They  can  provide 
it  only  by  pretty  radically  changing  their  methods.  What 
the  changes  ought  to  be  is  indicated  by  comments  of  the 
kind  in  which  I  have  indulged.  In  the  first  place,  the  pro- 
gram of  studies  in  the  graduate  school  should  not  be 
arranged  with  a  view  to  covering  the  field  in  the  various 
subjects,  nor  with  the  view  of  teaching  graduate  students 
what  they  ought  to  know.  It  should  be  arranged,  first  of 
all,  with  the  purpose  of  providing  an  opportunity  for  those 
who  teach  and  direct  investigation  to  do  the  thing  they  are 
best  fitted  to  do,  no  matter  how  special  that  thing  may  be 


172  EDUCATIOX.^L  SESSION 

and  no  matter  whether  it  can  be  neatly  classified  in  one 
department  as  over  against  another.  It  should  also  be  ar- 
ranged with  the  purpose  of  providing  courses  of  a  popular 
but  advanced  character  which  would  keep  constantly  be- 
fore the  university  public  the  progress  of  knowledge  in  the 
various  departments  of  inquiry.  Beyond  these  two  pro- 
visions there  is  little  that  is  not  purely  incidental.  All 
courses  designed  primarily'  to  carry  the  student  safely 
over  even  the  minimum  of  what  he  is  expected  to  know 
should  be  discouraged.  That  knowledge  the  student  should 
be  forced  to  acquire  for  himself  from  the  sources  which 
already  exist  in  abundance.  He  should  also  be  left  free  to 
elect  his  courses  and  to  work  or  not  in  connection  with 
them  as  he  pleases.  The  only  reasonable  restriction  which 
should  be  put  upon  his  election  is  one  which  will  protect 
the  teacher  from  the  incompetent  in  those  courses  in 
which  the  teacher  is  carrying  on  his  own  researches  with 
a  company  of  students  on  whose  cooperation  he  relies  for 
the  success  of  his  course.  And,  naturally,  incompetent 
students  should  not  be  allowed  in  laboratories  to  waste 
time  and  materials.  But  aside  from  such  restrictions  no 
one  should  have  power  to  veto  the  election  of  students, 
least  of  all  the  department  of  his  choice  or  the  dean. 
The  system  of  credits  should  be  wholly  abolished, 
and  for  them  a  system  of  through,  comprehensive  ex- 
aminations should  be  substituted.  Students  should  re- 
ceive credit  for  attendance  only,  and  not  for  work. 
Credit  for  attendance  is  necessaiy  both  to  assure  resi- 
dence and  to  force  students  to  elect  courses  widely.  But 
credit  for  work  distracts  the  student  from  his  own  inde- 
pendent study  and  makes  him  rely  on  his  instructor  and 
not  on  himself.  From  the  day  he  enters  the  graduate 
school  he  should  be  made  to  feel  that  the  program  of 
studies  is  not  something  part  of  which  he  must  master  in 
order  to  secure  a  degree,  but  is  only  an  ally  of  his  indi- 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  173 

vidual  study,  affording  him  the  opportunity  to  become 
acquainted  with  scholars  and  their  methods  and  with  the 
outstanding  problems  of  investigation.  He  should  be 
expected  to  be  himself  a  scholar  and  not  a  pupil.  He 
should  know  and  feel  at  least  the  reality  of  intellectual 
freedom  and  responsibility.  The  amount  of  scholarship 
expected  of  him  as  a  candidate  for  a  degree  should  be 
defined,  not  in  terms  of  courses,  but  in  terms  of  subject- 
matter,  and  his  proficiency  should  be  tested  by  competent 
examinations. 

With  such  provisions,  teachers  in  the  graduate  school 
would  themselves  be  free  to  promote  knowledge.  They 
should  no  longer  be  the  tired  men  they  are  now  so  fre- 
quently. I  say  this  without  irony.  For  the  exhausting 
effects  of  our  present  graduate  machinery  have  been 
borne  in  upon  me  with  recurring  emphasis  as  the  years 
go  by.  I  have  seen  promising  scholars  ruined  by  con- 
scientious devotion  to  the  demands  of  a  cumbersome  and 
wholly  unnecessary  system  of  graduate  administration 
and  instruction.  It  is  all  wicked  waste.  There  is  a  free- 
dom of  teaching  more  precious,  I  think,  than  that  free- 
dom about  which  we  get  excited  when  our  opinions  get  us 
into  trouble,  the  freedom  of  living  intimately  and  af- 
fectionately with  the  things  of  the  mind.  Such  freedom 
should  flourish  in  the  graduate  school.  Into  it  students 
should  be  welcomed,  not  because  they  have  previously 
attained  a  satisfactory  bachelor's  degree,  but  because  it 
leads  on  to  all  the  permanent  values  in  man's  endeavor  to 
master  nature  and  himself. 

Such  changes  as  I  have  indicated  in  outline  are 
neither  untried  nor  without  the  sound  warrant  of  ex- 
perience. They  require  not  evidence  to  support  them, 
but  energy  and  determination  to  make  them  effective.  It 
is  true,  no  doubt,  that  scholars  are  not  made  by  the 
schemes  of  deans  and  other  administrative  officers.    But 


174  EDUCATION.U  SESSION 

deans  and  administrative  officers  may  do  much  to  destroy 
them;  and  so  may  the  graduate  school.  Our  business  is 
to  provide  the  proper  soil  and  atmosphere  in  which  they 
flourish.    That  done,  our  responsibility  is  discharged. 


BESEAECH  IN  THE  UNIVERSITIES 


PROF.    VERNON    h.    KKI,I<0GG,    M.S. 

Secretary  of  the  National  Research  Council 


The  fundamental  basis  of  scientific  research  is  not 
personal  advantage  nor  even  general  utility,  but  is  simply 
personal  curosity  in  its  best  form.  It  is  the  wish  and  will 
to  know,  as  contrasted  with  the  willingness  to  accept  the 
say-so  of  the  nearest  neighbor.  The  Germans  have  a 
special  word  for  this  best  kind  of  curosity;  they  call  it 
Wissbegier,  common  to  but  few  persons,  as  contrasted 
with  ordinary  Neugier,  common  to  everyone. 

The  fundamental  seat  of  research  in  America  is  not 
in  the  laboratories  of  industry  and  invention,  nor  even  in 
the  special  research  institutions,  but  in  the  colleges  and 
universities.  For  not  only  is  the  major  part  of  American 
scientific  investigation  done  in  them  but  also  practically 
all  the  training  of  new  research  workers. 

Anything,  therefore,  which  lessens  the  interest  and 
activities  of  the  universities  in  research  threatens  not 
merely  immediate  achievement  in  it  but  also  the  pro- 
vision of  the  workers  necessary  for  future  achievement. 
And  any  lessening  in  American  research  now  or  lessening 
of  the  provision  for  research  in  the  future  threatens  the 
American  national  strength  and  well-being. 

Unfortunately,  there  are  conditions  in  American  life 
to-day  which  are  a  grave  menace  to  research  and  research 
training  in  the  universities.  One  of  these  conditions, 
curiously  enough,  arises  from  the  great  stimulus,  in  all 
other  respects,  very  welcome,  given  science  by  the  war. 
This  condition  is,  of  course,  the  familiar  present  draining 


176  EDUCATIOX.U  SESSION 

from  the  universities  of  scientific  men  for  the  industrial 
laboratories.  As  has  been  said  by  the  chief  engineer  of 
one  of  the  greatest  of  American  industrial  concerns,  '' In- 
dustrial research  organizations  are  essentially  man-con- 
suming as  distinguished  from  man-producing  agencies." 
But  even  this  less  welcome  by-product  of  the  welcome 
stimulus  can,  in  time,  and  with  proper  attention,  be  made 
to  produce  a  beneficient  condition  despite  its  hurtful 
action  for  the  moment. 

The  war  really  did  give  a  great  stimulus  to  general 
and  governmental  interest  in  science.  Many  things,  such 
as  men,  money,  ships,  and  food,  are  claimed  to  have  won 
the  war.  Science  may,  with  equal  validity,  make  its 
claim.  Certainly  lack  of  science  in  the  earlier  years  of 
the  war  nearly  lost  it  for  the  Allies.  Which  is  only  to 
say  that  science  nearly  won  it  for  the  Germans. 

While  engaged  with  the  work  of  Mr.  Hoover's  relief 
commission  in  German-occupied  Belgium  and  France  in 
1915  and  1916,  it  was  my  peculiar  privilege — and  neces- 
sity— to  live  for  several  months  at  the  Great  German 
Headquarters  in  Charleville  and  to  make  many  visits 
on  matters  of  relief  diplomacy  to  the  Headquarters  in 
otiier  months.  Under  these  circumstances  I  came  natural- 
ly to  make  the  acquaintance  of  several  important  officers 
of  the  German  General  Staff,  and  to  have  much  frank 
talk  with  them — with  some  of  them,  at  least.  Now  while 
this  talking  with  the  Staff  officers  was  not  chiefly  devoted 
to  a  discussion  of  science,  it  touched  so  often  on  one  par- 
ticular matter  of  science  that  this  matter  will  ever  re- 
main one  of  the  outstanding  indelible  memories  of  these 
extraordinary  conversations  and  experiences. 

Whenever  German  victories  were  interrupted  for  a 
few  days  or  weeks,  or,  as  in  the  latter  part  of  the  period 
of  my  relations  with  the  headquarters,  were  replaced  by 
grudgingly  admitted  Allied  successes,  the  officers  of  the 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  177 

General  Staff  had  one  unfailing  solace.  ''All  right,"  said 
they,  ''our  scientific  men  will  give  us  something  new. 
They  are  all  at  work ;  their  work  is  all  organized  so  as  to 
meet  any  emergency;  just  wait  until  next  week  or  next 
month  and  we  '11  have  something  to  make  your  eyes  stick 
out."  This  is  admittedly  a  rather  free  translation  of 
what  they  said,  but  it  conveys  the  meaning  of  their 
boasts.  And  they  were  not  idle  boasts.  The  organized 
scientific  men  of  Germany  did  make  the  world's  eyes 
stick  out  several  times  during  the  war.  So  at  Great 
Headquarters  there  was  always  a  confidence  which  the 
spectacle  of  nation  after  nation  allying  itself  to 
Germany's  enemies  would  otherwise  have  made  dif- 
ficult to  maintain.  It  was  the  confidence  in  Germany's 
science.  And  it  was  necessary,  before  the  war  could  be 
won,  to  meet  German  scionce  with  English  and  French 
and  Italian  and  American  science.  We  and  the  Allies  had 
to  organize  science  too,  and,  with  a  haste  made  desperate 
by  necessity,  it  was  done. 

The  stimulus  given  by  the  war  to  interest  and  work 
in  science  shows  its  first  result  in  connection  with  in- 
dustrial, or,  taken  more  widely,  applied  science,  and  also 
in  connection  with  attempts  better  to  coordinate  or  or- 
ganize scientific  research.  It  is,  indeed,  little  wonder  that 
the  illuminating  revelation  made  by  the  war  of  the  basic 
importance  of  science  in  national  strength  has  led  to 
serious  attempts  by  the  more  forward  and  understand- 
ing nations  to  put  themselves  in  the  way  to  take  greater 
advantage  than  heretofore  of  their  scientific  resources, 
both  of  personnel  and  material.  Great  Britain,  France, 
Italy,  Belgium,  Japan  and  America  have  all  taken  special 
steps  to  continue  and  to  extend  their  scientific  mobiliza- 
tion and  organization  for  the  new  period  of  national  re- 
construction and  international  economic  competition,  and 


178  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

to  be  ready  for  the  next  great  war,  if  the  present  efforts 
to  avert  it  fail. 

In  December,  1916,  England  established  a  Govern- 
ment Department  of  Scientific  and  Industrial  Kesearch, 
with  a  fund  of  five  million  dollars  for  the  first  five  years. 
This  Department  was  made  responsible  to  the  Lord  Presi- 
dent of  the  Council,  who  is  the  only  cabinet  minister  who 
has  relations  with  the  whole  British  Empire.  It  was 
recognized  that  British  scientific  research  concerned  all 
of  the  empire. 

But  the  great  Dominions  were  not  content  to  rely 
solely  on  the  activities  of  the  mother  country.  Canada 
and  Australia  have  already  set  up  similar  special  govern- 
mental bureaus  or  institutions  of  scientific  research,  and 
South  Africa,  India  and  New  Zealand  have  taken,  or  be- 
gun, the  necessary  steps  to  establish  similar  organiza- 
tions. 

The  other  Allies  have  also  taken,  or  are  in  course  of 
taking,  their  measures  in  the  same  direction.  Japan's 
activities  are  especially  marked.  A  national  laboratory 
for  scientific  and  industrial  research  has  been  established 
with  a  first  fund  of  two  and  a  half  million  dollars  for  its 
maintenance. 

In  France,  Italy,  and  Belgium  the  new  organization 
of  scientific  work  is  in  a  more  preliminary  state  of  de- 
velopment, but  in  each  of  these  countries,  organization  is 
actually  under  way. 

What  of  America?  Well,  we  also  are  moving.  We 
have,  for  many  years,  had  well-developed  and  well-sup- 
ported governmental  bureaus  of  scientific  work.  The  list 
of  them  is  long  and  imposing.  We  have  also  a  number  of 
active  special  institutions  of  scientific  research,  support- 
ed by  the  great  philanthropic  foundations,  such  as  the 
Carnegie  Corporation  and  the  Rockefeller  Foundation,  or 
by  other  private  (as  contrasted  with  government)  funds. 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  179 

AYe  have  developed  first-class  research  laboratories  and 
research  men  in  the  universities  and  great  technical  col- 
leges of  the  country.  There  is,  too,  a  considerable  and 
growing  number  of  industrial  research  laboratories  sup- 
ported directly  by  industrial  concerns.  Some  of  these 
are  large,  but  most  of  them  are  small  and  very  strictly 
limited  to  a  few  specific  ''works  problems,"  of  particular 
interest  to  the  special  industrial  concerns  supporting 
them.  A  list  of  three  hundred  such  private  industrial 
laboratories  has  recently  been  published  in  a  National 
Research  Council  bulletin,  and  there  are  undoubtedly 
others  not  included  in  this  list. 

But  we  have  taken  an  additional  special  step  in  the 
establishment  of  the  National  Research  Council,  a  co- 
operative organization  of  scientific  men  and  some  men  of 
affairs  interested  in  science  with  the  essential  purpose  of 
promoting  scientific  research  and  the  application  and 
dissemination  of  scientific  knowledge  for  the  national 
benefit.  Unlike  the  new  British  and  Japanese  organiza- 
tions of  somewhat  similar  character,  the  Research  Coun- 
cil is  not  a  government  concern ;  it  is  neither  government- 
supported  nor  government-controlled.  And  although 
vitally  interested  in  applied  science,  it  is  no  less  but 
probably  more  interested  in  the  encouragement  of  funda- 
mental or  ' '  pure ' '  science.  Hence  it  has  a  particular  and 
lively  interest  in  the  research  situation  as  it  exists  to-day 
in  America  colleges  and  universities.  In  my  own  case, 
as  officer  of  the  Council,  this  interest  takes  on  an  especial- 
ly pressing  character,  for  I  happen  to  be  chairman  of  that 
Division  of  the  Council  which  has  for  special  field  of 
activity  the  relations  of  the  Council  to  the  educational  in- 
stitutions of  the  country. 

In  order  that  these  relations  may  be  as  intelligently 
and  usefully  cultivated  as  possible,  the  Division  has 
undertaken  to  inform  itself  as  widely  and  as  well  as 


180  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

possible  before  attempting  any  constructive  efforts,  by 
making  a  special  survey  of  the  research  situation  as  it 
exists  to-day  in  our  colleges  and  universities.  This  sur\'ey, 
carried  on  by  correspondence  and,  more  effectively,  by 
personal  visits  of  representatives  of  the  Division  to  the 
educational  institutions,  more  than  100  institutions  hav- 
ing been  visited,  has  now  been  under  way  for  several 
months,  and  I  am  in  position  to-day  to  make  a  sort  of  in- 
formal preliminary  report  on  some  of  the  aspects  of  the 
situation  as  revealed  by  it. 

Much  of  the  specific  information  at  hand  only  makes 
more  definite  what  is  already  kno^vn  in  a  general  way. 
That  the  great  increase  in  student  enrollment  last  year 
and  this,  without  a  corresponding  faculty  expansion,  has 
so  mcreased  the  teaching  and  administrative  load  of  the 
faculty  men  that  it  has  materially  lessened  their  time  and 
energy  for  research  work  is  generally  known.  What  is 
not  so  generally  known,  perhaps,  is  the  fact,  which  ap- 
pears from  our  survey,  that  in  by  far  the  larger  number 
of  colleges  and  universities,  even  including  many  with  a 
special  reputation  for  research  work  done  and  oppor- 
tunity for  it  offered,  when,  as  in  this  instance,  special 
conflict,  if  it  may  bluntly  be  called  that,  between  teach- 
ing and  research  comes,  tradition  and  administrative  in- 
fluence easily  give  the  victory  to  teaching  even  to  the  ex- 
tent of  what  the  military  reporters  call,  somewhat  exag- 
geratedly, annihilation  of  the  losing  side.  Eesearch 
under  way  is  interrupted,  new  work  is  not  begun,  and 
the  research  spirit  and  atmosphere  are  clouded.  This 
victory  of  the  teaching  over  the  research  interest  may  be 
explained  by  the  necessities  of  the  situation,  especially  in 
those  institutions  supported  by  the  tax-paying  parents  of 
the  state  and  bound  to  give  a  university  course  to  all  the 
applying  sons  and  daughters,  although  whether,  in  doing 
this  in  an  atmosphere  unfreshened  by  research  it  gives 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  181 

them  a  university  education,  is  open  to  question.  To 
some  the  victory  of  teaching  may  even  seem  the  prefer- 
able one,  if  there  really  must  be  victory  for  one  side  or  the 
other.  But  under  any  circumstances  of  explanation  or 
attitude  the  fact  of  the  teaching  victory  is  significant. 

Another  familiar  fact  of  general  knowledge  is  that 
a  major  part  of  university  research  in  this  country 
comes  from  a  comparatively  small  number  of  larger, 
richer,  better-equipped,  more  brilliantly-staffed  institu- 
tions. But  it  is  less  familiar  that  the  great  majority  of 
the  graduate  or  research  students  of  these  larger  institu- 
tions come  to  them,  not  from  their  own  annual  output  of 
bachelors,  but  from  other  smaller  colleges  and  universi- 
ties. The  dean  of  the  graduate  school  of  one  of  these 
largest  universities,  particularly  famous  for  its  annual 
output  of  graduate  degree  men,  reports  that  ninety  per 
cent  of  its  graduate  students  come  from  other  smaller 
institutions. 

How  important  it  is,  then,  that  in  these  other  smaller 
institutions  there  should  be  kept  alive  and  encouraged 
those  devoted  struggling  men  endowed  with  the  persist- 
ent spirit  of  investigation,  and  competent  to  transfer 
some  of  this  spirit,  and  give  some  preliminary  training,  to 
their  more  promising  students,  who  later  find  their  way 
into  the  graduate  schools  of  the  larger  insitutions.  Part 
"f  the  credit  for  the  output  of  research  workers  from 
♦  Jhicago  and  Columbia  should  go  to  Denison  and  Oberlin, 
and  the  well-known  investigators  who  turn  out  a  steady 
stream  of  well-trained  and  inspired  young  men  from 
'heir  finely-equipped  and  famous  laboratories  should  not 
forget — ^I  make  no  doubt  they  do  not — what  they  owe  to 
the  less  well-known  men,  isolated  and  scattered,  who,  con- 
tent, by  necessity,  with  the  humble  role  of  feeders  and 
)(0t  finishers,  send  into  these  larger  laboratories  from 
their  own  small  and  meagerly-furnished  ones,  the  lesser 


182  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

but  no  less  steady  streams  of  young  men  started  right, 
t  oth  as  to  training  and  inspiration,  for  the  self-sacrific- 
lig  career  of  investigators  of  science  for  science  and 
iumanity's  sake. 

I  have  been  most  agreeably  surprised  to  find  out,  in 
tie  course  of  our  survey,  how  many  there  are  of  these 
&  nailer  institutions  possessed  of  a  real  research  tradition 
aud  atmosphere,  and  how  many  there  are  of  these  devot- 
ed research  workers  and  research  work  trainers  scatter- 
ed all  over  the  land.  Given  a  tradition  and  spirit  handed 
dt  wn  by  some  one  or  two  true  investigators  of  an  earlier 
day,  a  s^^npathetic  executive,  and  a  few  present  men,  or 
ev'3n  one,  possessed  of  the  divine  spark,  and,  despite 
material  handicaps,  isolation  and  limited  student  mate- 
rial to  select  from,  there  you  have  a  research  source. 

Besides  a  certain  library  and  laboratory  equipment, 
a  s}TQpathetic  atmosphere  and  competent  men,  all  re- 
search requires  time,  and,  much  of  it,  a  certain  degree  of 
what  may  be  called  special  opportunity.  Prompt  facili- 
ties of  publication,  and  means,  both  as  regards  money 
and  release  from  routine  requirements,  for  attendance  at 
meetings  and  conferences  of  fellow  investigators,  are 
very  helpful,  sometimes  indispensable.  The  sabbatical 
or  some  other  system  of  leave  is  a  great  aid  to  research 
achievement  by  university  men.  And  I  imagine  that 
the  popular  notion  is  that  some  kind  of  leave  system  ob- 
tains in  most  universities  and  colleges.  The  sad  fact  is, 
however,  that  just  the  opposite  is  true.  A  regular  sab- 
batical or  even  a  one  in  eight  or  ten  years  system,  with  as 
much  as  one-half  pay — and  this  is  never  enough — as  a 
definite,  to-be-relied-on  condition  of  faculty  service  is 
exceptional  rather  than  usual  in  our  universities.  Among 
a  selected  list  of  230  colleges  and  universities — several 
hundrer  smaller  ones  can  be  put  out  of  consideration  at 
once — considerably  more  than  one-half  recognize  no  sys- 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  183 

tern  or  faculty  claims  for  leave  of  any  kind.  Among  ninety- 
nine  that  do  give  some  ear  to  requests  for  leave,  or  profess 
some  sort  of  established  system,  less  than  half  have  a 
regular  one  in  seven  or  one  in  eight  years  system  with 
half  or  full  pay,  only  a  pitiful  few  giving  the  full  pay. 

For  special  short-time  leaves,  for  the  sake  of  attend- 
ing important  meetings  of  scientific  societies  or  for  con- 
ferences with  other  workers  in  the  same  research  field, 
numerous  institutions  show  a  certain  generosity  of  allow- 
ance of  time — but  few  of  money,  which  in  all  too  many 
cases  is  as  necessary  as  the  time.  One  of  the  special 
efforts  of  the  National  Eesearch  Council  is  to  provide 
funds  for  the  necessary  traveling  and  maintenance  ex- 
penses of  the  members,  who  are  mostly  university  pro- 
fessors, of  its  various  divisions  and  many  special  re- 
search project  committees  in  connection  with  their  neces- 
sary meetings  and  conferences.  To  get  the  proposed 
participants  in  a  cooperative  research  together  for  a  day 
in  the  same  room  is  a  long  step  in  getting  that  particular 
research  under  way.  To  get  together  ever  so  many  letters 
from  them  is  hardly  more  than  nothing. 

Research  funds,  research  professorships,  and  gradu- 
ate fellowships  are  means  used  to  promote  research  work 
in  universities.  Of  the  advantage  of  specific  research 
funds  there  will  be  little  question.  Unfortunately  they 
are  few  and  usually  not  large.  The  recently  announced 
Heckscher  gift  of  half  u  million  dollars  to  Cornell  as  an 
endowment  to  provide  a  permanent  annual  fund  for  re- 
search is  an  example  that  we  may  hope  will  stimulate 
the  making  of  other  similar  gifts.  The  great  industries 
of  the  country,  whose  development  and  success  are  based 
on  the  applications  of  science,  should  be  brought  to 
realize  how  important  to  them  is  the  constant  extension 
of  research  in  fundamental  or  that  so-called  ''pure" 
science  which  alone  makes  applied  science  possible  and 


184  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

gives  it  constant  hope  of  new  triumphs.  From  these  in- 
dustries should  come  a  generous  support  of  research  in 
the  universities  and  especially  of  the  opportunities  for 
training  in  research,  as  it  is  almost  exclusively  from  the 
universities  that  comes  the  constant  provision  of  the  re- 
search workers  for  the  future.  There  are  signs  that  such 
recognition  by  the  industries  of  the  value  to  themselves 
of  the  special  institutions  for  fundamental  research  and 
the  university  laboratories  is  increasing.  The  National 
Research  Council  has  just  had  a  money  gift  of  consider- 
able amount  from  a  great  industrial  concern  to  use  in 
whatever  way  the  Council  deems  best  for  the  promotion 
of  research.  A  much  larger  gift  has  recently  been  made 
by  a  great  English  industrial  company  for  the  support  of 
research  in  the  English  universities. 

But  while  the  establishment  of  research  funds  in 
universities  is  accepted  as  wholly  desirable,  the  founding 
of  research  professorships  and  the  multiplication  of 
graduate  fellowships  are  not  accepted  Avithout  some 
head-shaking.  Especially  is  this  true  in  the  case  of  the 
graduate  fellowships.  The  existence  of  a  considerable 
body  of  graduate  fellows  in  a  university  does  not  neces- 
sarily mean  the  carrying  on  of  much  research  work  nor 
even  the  training  of  numerous  young  men  to  be  research 
workers.  It  does  mean  the  more  or  less  serious  applica- 
tion of  many  young  men  and  women  to  the  business  of 
getting  a  master's  or  doctor's  degree,  and  the  devotion 
of  a  certain  number  of  them  to  research  aspirations.  In 
fact,  the  whole  matter  of  graduate  school  organization 
and  work  is  made  difficult  by  the  mixture  in  it  of  the 
simultaneous  attempts  to  provide  opportunities  for  de- 
gree getting  and  opportunities  for  research  work  and 
training.  The  National  Research  Council,  because  of  its 
special  interest  in  encouraging  active  research  in  the  uni- 
versities, has  arranged  for  the  establishment  of  a  con- 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  185 

siderable  number  of  strictly  research  university  fellow- 
ships in  physics  and  chemistry,  and  all  of  the  eighteen 
men  so  far  appointed  to  these  fellowships  are  already 
holders  of  the  doctor's  degree. 

There  has  been  much  discussion  of  the  possibilities 
of  devising  some  special  means  for  recognizing  possible 
good  material  for  research  work  among  advanced  stu- 
dents, and  certain  psychologists,  in  the  light  of  the  mark- 
ed success  in  the  use  of  special  intelligence  tests  in  the 
schools  and  in  the  army,  are  asking  the  National  Research 
Council  to  support  an  extended  experiment  along  this 
line  among  university  students.  The  Council  is  inclined 
to  do  this. 

In  the  meantime,  for  the  sake  of  a  more  careful  at- 
tention to  research  possibilities  and  encouragement  both 
among  students  and  faculty,  the  setting  up  of  special 
university  research  committees,  either  within  the  gradu- 
ate school  or  more  or  less  independent  of  it,  seems  to  be 
well  justified  by  results  already  accomplished.  The  Re- 
search Council  is  now  in  touch  with  about  fifty  such  com- 
mittees and  is  encouraging  the  formation  of  others.  A 
conspicious  example  of  what  may  be  accomplished  by  a 
well-chosen  and  active  committee  of  this  kind  is  furnish- 
ed by  the  University  of  California.  This  committee  has 
been  able  so  to  impress  the  university  administrative 
authorities  and  the  faculty  with  the  high  desirability,  or 
even  necessity,  of  a  strong  development  of  research  work 
and  training,  if  the  university  is  to  do  the  best  that  it  can 
do  for  the  people  of  the  state  who  support  it,  that  money 
and  authority  have  been  put  into  its  hand  sufiicient  to  in- 
sure this  development.  Probably  no  other  part  of  Cali- 
fornia University's  administration  is  now  doing  more  to 
mould  the  policy  and  activities  of  the  institution.  Other 
committees  less  well  endowed  with  authority  and  means 
have  nevertheless  been  able  to  exercise  a  most  important 


186  EDUCATIOX.\L  SESSION 

and  salutary  influence  in  their  universities  by  the 
strength  derived  from  the  innate  instinct  and  enthusiasm 
for  creative  scholarship  possessed  by  their  members, 
which  has  enabled  them,  in  a  most  natural  way,  to  build 
up  an  opinion  strongly  supporting  research  as  a  justifi- 
able function  of  faculty  members,  and  to  develop  a  point 
of  view  favoring  research  activity  which  has  come  to 
permeate  the  whole  system  of  teaching  in  their  institu- 
tions. Even  if  a  university  cannot  afford  to  support  re- 
search in  any  large  way,  yet  it  cannot  advisedly  afford 
not  to  support  a  leavening  nucleus  of  research  men  in  its 
faculty.  The  leaven  of  research  will  make  the  whole  loaf 
of  teaching  much  more  nutritive. 


************ 


Now,  I  have  brought  you,  in  my  brief  discussion, 
little  that  is  new,  but  I  hope  I  have  at  least  emphasized 
some  matters  that  you  already  have  in  mind  and  are 
already  inclined  to  take  serious  interest  in.    Our  Ameri- 
can universities  have  within  the  last  year  been  severely 
criticized    by    an    eminent    Canadian    mathematician, 
speaking  before  the  Eoyal  Canadian  Institute,  because 
of  their  lack  of  attention  to  the  demoralized  research 
situation  in  them.     I  am  not  aware  that  the  Canadian 
universities  are  in  special  position  to  reproach  us  in  this 
connection,  but  all  of  us  would  rather  see  our  own  situa- 
tion of  such  character  as  to  bring  us  congratulation  and 
praise  instead  of  condolence  and  blame.   How  thorough- 
ly Germany  appreciates  the  advantages  that  a  high  de- 
velopment of  research  activity  may  bring  is  shown  by 
her  success,  despite  enormous  handicaps,  in  opening  two 
new  universities  since  the  beginning  of  the  war — and 
universities  in  Germany  are  synonymous  with  seats  of 
actual  research  and  training  for  research.     Our  univer- 
sities should  have  the  same  significance  in  this  respect 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  187 

to  our  country  as  Germany's  have  to  Germany.  And  it 
is  wholly  possible  to  bring  this  about.  But  as  our  uni- 
versities, unlike  Germany's,  are  mostly  a  law  unto  them- 
selves, it  is  in  their  own  hands  to  determine  whether  this 
shall  really  be  brought  about  or  not. 


THE  JUNIOR  COLLEGE  MOVEMENT 


A.    ROSS    HILL,    PH.D.j    LL.D. 

President  of  the  University  of  Missouri 


It  seems  difficult  to  determine  just  when  the  idea  of 
the  junior  college  was  first  suggested,  but  it  probably 
occurred  at  an  earlier  date  than  most  of  us  have  supposed. 
In  his  inaugural  address  as  President  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Minnesota,  Col.  Folwell  suggested  that  ulti- 
mately the  secondary  schools  in  the  larger  centers  of 
population  might  well  undertake  the  work  of  the  fresh- 
man and  sophomore  years  in  the  university.  One  might 
make  a  case  for  the  claim  that  in  several  of  the  early 
state  systems  of  education  there  was  contemplated  the 
existence  of  institutions,  public  or  private,  that  should 
do  the  work  now  being  attempted  by  junior  colleges, 
that  is,  supplement  the  general  training  of  the  second- 
ary schools  and  prepare  students  for  specialization  in  the 
professional  and  advanced  schools  of  the  university. 
Notably  the  educational  system  of  Virginia  as  conceived 
in  the  original  plans  for  the  University  of  Virginia,  and 
the  first  education  act  of  Missouri,  contemplated  a  num- 
ber of  collegiate  institutions  that  would  connect  the  pub- 
lic schools  with  the  university,  but  these  middle  schools 
were  not  established.  But  in  these  early  suggestions  there 
was  no  clear  recognition  of  the  junior  college  as  an  insti- 
tution, and  it  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  it  first  secured 
public  recognition  as  an  essential  contribution  to  our 
educational  machinery  through  President  W.  R.  Harper 
and  the  early  organization  of  the  the  University  of 
Chicago,  with  its  somewhat  sharp  distinction  between 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  189 

the  junior  college  and  the  senior  college  and  its  emphasis 
upon  the  collegiate  character  of  the  first  two  years  of 
work  against  the  university  character  of  that  offered  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  college  course. 

President  Harper  attempted  to  enlist  the  interest  of 
a  group  of  private  institutions  in  becoming  junior  col- 
leges with  no  expectation  of  carrying  the  work  beyond 
this  point  and  with  the  definite  policy  of  leaving  to  the 
universities  the  conduct  of  more  advanced  academic  as 
well  as  professional  instruction.  The  small  colleges  did 
not  respond  readily  to  this  scheme  of  affiliation;  but  the 
policy  of  establishing  within  their  own  curricula  a  dis- 
tinction between  college  and  university  academic  work, 
already  found  in  many  universities  and  strong  colleges 
before  the  organization  of  the  University  of  Chicago, 
persisted  and  became  more  general  in  spite  of  the  example 
of  the  few  institutions  that  for  a  time  followed  and  ad- 
vocated an  absolutely  free  elective  system,  or  what 
amounted  to  the  same  thing  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
present  discussion,  a  system  of  majors  and  minors  that 
could  be  entered  upon  as  early  as  the  freshman  year. 
The  growing  recognition  that  our  Amrican  practice  is 
widely  at  variance  with  European  usages,  and  the  con- 
viction that  the  period  between  the  present  four-year 
high  school  and  the  four-year  college  does  not  mark  any 
real  educational  transition,  that  most  of  our  freshmen 
and  much  of  our  sophomore  instruction  is  secondary  in 
character  while  there  is  a  period  some  time  toward  the 
end  of  our  second  college  year  where  a  genuine  transi- 
tion does  occur  in  the  case  of  a  large  proportion  of  the 
students,  have  tended  to  make  the  distinction  between 
the  lower  and  the  higher  divisions  of  universities  almost 
universal,  though  in  the  majority  of  them  it  is  still 
vaguely  expressed.  The  wide-spread  movement  within 
the  last  decade  to  require  two  years  of  college  work  for 


190  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

admission  to  university  professional  seliools  has 
strengthened  this  tendency  and  served  to  call  public  at- 
tention to  the  field  of  the  junior  college.  And  the  great 
increase  in  the  number  of  freshmen  enrolled  in  the  large 
universities  since  the  war  has  made  the  junior  college 
movement  of  more  than  academic  interest. 

The  junior  college  idea  seems  to  be  now  very  widely 
accepted,  and  interesting  experiments  are  in  progress  in 
many  states.  But  California  and  Missouri  are  as  yet  the 
only  states  that  seem  to  have  anything  approaching  state- 
wide systems  of  junior  colleges.  In  the  case  of  California 
these  junior  colleges  are  public  institutions  connected 
with  public  high  schools;  in  Missouri  they  are,  with  two 
exceptions,  private  colleges  that  have  recently  discon- 
tinued the  j)ractice  of  conferring  degrees  and  have  in 
general  given  up  the  pretense  of  offering  complete  col- 
lege curricula  and  of  maintaining  standard  collegiate  in- 
stitutions. In  California  the  movement  was  promoted 
chiefly  by  pressure  from  the  local  communities  and  pub- 
lic school  authorities;  in  Missouri  by  conference  and  co- 
operation from  the  outset  between  heads  of  private  insti- 
tutions and  the  president  of  the  state  university.  While 
public  junior  colleges  are  likely  to  be  established  during 
the  next  decade  in  reasonable  numbers  in  the  larger  cities 
of  the  modern  western  states,  the  South  seems  to  be  a 
favorable  field  for  the  development  of  junior  colleges  on 
private  foundations.  There  are  in  the  South  nearly  four 
hundred  institutions  claiming  to  be  colleges  or  univer- 
sities, only  about  thirty  of  which  are  recognized  by  the 
Southern  Association  of  Colleges  and  Secondary  Schools. 
Not  more  than  forty  others  approximate  the  minimum 
requirements  of  a  standard  college.  There  remain  ap- 
proximately three  hundred  practically  unclassified.  Of 
these,  perhaps  as  many  as  one  hundred  might  improve 
their  equipment,  curricula,  teaching  force  and  general 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  191 

organization  sufficiently  to  do  two  years  of  worthy  col- 
lege work.  Many  of  them  are  showing  marked  interest 
in  the  junior  college  movement,  and  it  is  safe  to  predict 
that  the  number  of  accredited  junior  colleges  will  be 
rapidly  increased.  Taking  the  country  as  a  whole,  it 
seems  clear  that  the  junior  college  movement  will  be  with 
us  for  some  time,  at  least,  if  it  has  not  come  to  stay  per- 
manently, and  the  problem  now  before  educators  is  its 
wise  guidance  and  the  discounting  so  far  as  possible  of 
the  dangers  to  which  it  may  be  naturally  exposed. 

This  movement  opens  a  way  for  effective  coopera- 
tion between  state  and  local  or  private  effort  in  education 
of  collegiate  grade.  Where  encouraged  and  wisely  guided 
by  the  universities,  it  leads  to  the  employment  of  better 
prepared  teachers  and  to  the  provision  of  better  library 
and  laboratory  equipment  in  the  institutions  that  claim 
to  give  college  instruction.  The  guidance  which  stand- 
ardization affords  philanthropic  persons,  who  may  be  in- 
terested in  promoting  education,  tends  to  aid  the  private 
junior  colleges  in  securing  needed  endowments,  and 
similarly  stimulates  localities  that  can  stand  the  expense 
to  provide  collegiate  instruction  in  postgraduate  depart- 
ments of  their  high  schools.  The  existence  of  a  number 
of  junior  colleges  in  a  state,  located  as  they  are  likely  to 
be  in  fairly  distinct  geographical  divisions,  tends  to  en- 
courage many  students,  who  for  one  reason  or  another 
cannot  or  should  not  attempt  to  graduate  from  a  univer- 
sity, to  secure  a  complete  general  education  or  to  get 
some  training  in  vocational  lines  and  in  direct  prepara- 
tion for  citizenship  beyond  what  the  high  school  can 
offer.  To  the  universities  the  junior  college  movement 
may  be  expected  to  bring  relief  from  the  present  pre- 
ponderance in  numbers  of  freshmen  and  sophomores  as 
compared  with  the  enrollment  of  upper-class  academic 
and  professional  students,  and  also  from  the  necessity  of 


192  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

eliminating  many  who  are  now  drifting  into  the  univer- 
sities without  definite  aims  and  without  the  intellectual 
interests  that  are  essential  to  wholesome  conditions  of 
university  life.  And  it  does  not  seem  possible  to  develop 
real  university  spirit  in  an  institution  whose  freshmen 
are  from  two  to  four  times  as  numerous  as  its  seniors 
and  graduate  students.  That  the  situation  in  the  larger 
state  universities  is  now  serious  cannot  be  questioned. 

Another  important  consideration  in  the  relation  of 
junior  colleges  to  state  universities  at  the  present  time  is 
this:  the  private  junior  colleges  for  women  all  have  resi- 
dence halls  whereas  state  universities  are  limited  in  their 
residence  accommodations  even  for  women  students.  It 
will  be  granted,  I  take  it,  that  this  matter  is  of  the  great- 
est importance  in  the  case  of  women  students  of  the  fresh- 
man and  sophomore  grades,  and  the  maturer  women  stu- 
dents can,  with  the  advice  of  a  dean  of  women,  much  more 
easily  adapt  themselves  to  the  conditions  prevailing  in 
the  co-educational  and  state  universities.  In  Missouri 
this  feature  of  residence  halls  has,  it  appears  to  me,  been 
the  chief  argument  presented  by  the  private  junior  col- 
leges to  their  patrons,  and  accounts  for  their  large  en- 
rollment and  their  general  success. 

But  certain  obvious  dangers  we  must  all  recognize. 
The  majority  of  high  schools,  even  of  those  on  our  ac- 
credited lists,  are  at  present  unable  to  do  thoroughly 
four  years  of  secondary  work.  They  lack  equipment  and 
adequately  trained  teachers.  Then  there  are  many  schools 
in  communities  of  modem  size  doing  admirably  the  work 
which  they  pretend  to  attempt  and  which  are  year  by  year 
more  completely  meeting  the  needs  of  their  own  com- 
munities. For  either  of  these  classes  of  schools  the  at- 
tempt to  take  on  a  fifth  or  sixth  year  of  work  would  be,  in 
some  cases,  a  form  of  folly  calling  for  frank  and  unequiv- 
ocal description  by  outside  disinterested  parties,  and  in 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  193 

others,  a  highly  ill-advised  step,  likely  to  lead  to  over- 
loading teachers  already  carrying  their  full  burden  of 
work  and  to  the  attempting  of  results  for  which  the  avail- 
able facilities  are  wholly  inadequate.  The  consequence 
would  be  to  ''substitute  for  a  well  organized  school,  do- 
ing faithfully  and  intelligently  the  things  within  its 
reasonable  reach,  a  shoddy,  ill-adjusted  and  generally  un- 
successful institution  exposing  itself  to  legitimate  criti- 
cism and  ultimate  loss  of  public  confidence."  As  a  rule 
a  community  with  a  population  less  than  50,000  should  go 
slowly  in  taking  up  the  consideration  of  the  establish- 
ment of  a  public  junior  college.  In  the  case  of  private  in- 
stitutions, the  question  of  present  and  prospective  endow^- 
ment  is  of  equal  importance. 

In  the  case  of  the  public  junior  college,  the  interests 
not  only  of  the  local  institution  and  the  universities,  but 
also  of  the  local  community  are  concerned.  Ambitious 
principals  and  superintendents  of  schools  are  likely  to  be 
injudiciously  stimulated  to  premature  developments  of 
the  junior  college  movement  in  communities  which  are 
financially  not  able  to  afford  proper  support.  On  the  other 
hand,  unprogressive  school  authorities  are  likely  to  dis- 
courage and  unduly  postpone  the  development  of  this 
type  where  the  community  is  abundantly  able  and  where 
a  service  of  unquestioned  value  could  be  rendered  both  to 
the  community  and  its  young  people.  In  a  few  communi- 
ties and  in  some  educationally  progressive  and  ambitious 
young  commonwealths,  rivalry  between  towns  and  gener- 
al booster  tendencies  may  operate  in  the  direction  of  un- 
due stimulation  of  this  movement.  While  these  facts 
call  for  sound  advice  from  institutions  with  which  the 
junior  colleges  seek  to  affiliate  and  from  which  they  ex- 
pect recognition,  and  while  the  universities  must  often 
firmly  decline  to  grant  recognition  and  courageously  ad- 
vise against  unwarranted  attempts  at  expansion  of  public 


194  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

school  programs,  yet  communities  may  certainly  demand 
that  junior  colleges  be  peculiarly  responsive  to  local 
needs  and  that  they  be  not  simply  attempts  at  copying 
the  first  two  years  of  the  conventional  college  program. 
Especially  demands  for  vocational  training  are  sure  to 
make  themselves  felt  and  in  general  the  majority  of 
junior  college  students  are  likely  in  time  to  find  it  the 
institution  in  which  they  finish  their  formal  education. 

At  the  outset  the  junior  college  is  likely  to  adopt  the 
curriculum  of  the  first  two  years  of  the  institution  with 
w^hich  it  most  naturally  will  seek  affiliation.  Its  program 
of  studies  will  include  foreign  languages,  English,  history 
and  government,  sociology  and  economics,  logic,  psy- 
chology, mathematics,  and  the  sciences.  There  will  not  be 
much  difficulty  in  establishing  work  of  freshman  and 
sophomore  grades  in  foreign  languages  and  mathematics 
and  perhaps  logic  and  psychology,  but  the  university  most 
immediately  concerned  will  in  most  cases  need  to  exercise 
some  watchful  care  for  the  instruction  in  history,  eco- 
nomics, and  the  sciences  to  insure  that  the  quality  and 
standard  are  really  collegiate  in  character.  Courses  in 
these  lines  should  be  broad,  but  sound,  and  should  aim 
not  at  technical  detail  but  at  insight  and  appreciation, 
which  are  the  bases  of  culture.  So  long  as  the  program 
of  studies  in  the  junior  college  is  of  the  nature  just  out- 
lined, there  will  be  no  difficulty  in  formulating  a  curri- 
culum that  will  dovetail  satisfactorily  into  the  university 
curriculum.  And  such  work  will  also  meet  the  needs  of 
those  students  who  wish  only  to  extend  their  academic 
training,  but  do  not  plan  to  graduate  from  a  university. 

But  some  students,  and  ultimately  perhaps  a  major- 
ity of  junior  college  students  in  the  public  institutions, 
w^ll  demand  primarily  training  in  domestic  science,  ac- 
counting, mechanic  arts  and  various  phases  of  technology 
and  agriculture.    In  their  interest  and  for  the  sake  of  the 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  195 

community,  it  is  desirable  that  this  demand  be  satisfied, 
and  the  people  of  the  community  will  in  the  long  run  see 
to  it  that  it  is  satisfied.  For  many  students  who  are  not 
destined  to  study  in  a  university,  the  greatest  service  the 
junior  college  can  render  will  lie  in  the  direction  of  voca- 
tional training  based  only  on  the  academic  training 
furnished  by  the  high  school. 

But  when  the  junior  college  becomes  a  vocational  in- 
stitution, it  severs  its  natural  relation  with  the  university 
and  its  curricula;  for  the  technical  and  professional  in- 
struction of  the  university  as  well  as  its  advanced  aca- 
demic work  are  based  upon  prerequisites  of  college  grade 
in  the  fundamental  sciences,  languages,  etc.  Perhaps  the 
best  solution  of  this  difficulty  is  that  the  junior  college  ex- 
periencing such  a  development,  in  order  to  meet  its 
obligations  to  the  local  community,  should  organize 
separate  curricula  in  arts  and  science,  technology,  teacher 
training,  etc.,  and  let  the  university  accredit  its  academic 
college  curriculum  as  an  institution  but  accredit  only 
some  individual  courses  in  its  vocational  program.  This 
is  the  policy  agreed  upon  between  the  Polytechnic  Insti- 
tute of  Kansas  City,  which  includes  the  Kansas  City 
Junior  College,  and  the  University  of  Missouri.  This 
difficulty  is  not  likely  to  be  so  acute  in  the  case  of  private 
junior  colleges,  especially  those  located  in  small  towns, 
partly  because  they  have  developed  academic  traditions 
through  many  years  of  college  and  academy  instruction; 
though  recognition  by  the  university  of  technological  cur- 
ricula in  public  junior  colleges  of  large  cities  would  at 
once  raise  a  similar  question  regarding  schools  of  music 
and  the  fine  arts  usually  maintained  in  connection  with 
the  private  junior  colleges. 

Of  course  conflicts  of  nearer  and  farther  aims  in 
shaping  the  course  of  an  individual  student  are  inevi- 
table. The  principle  should  always  be  kept  in  mind  that 
as  long  as  possible  courses  of  instruction  should  be  so 


196  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

conducted  and  so  grouped  that  he  can  at  the  same  time 
best  prepare  for  further  study  and  for  immediate  service 
to  society  in  case  he  has  to  drop  out  at  any  time.  But 
the  time  of  quite  sharp  differentiation  of  instruction  can- 
not be  indefinitely  postponed.  For  those  whose  intel- 
lectual interests  and  opportunities  make  it  undesirable 
that  they  attempt  a  complete  university  training  this 
differentiation  should  certainly  not  be  postponed  beyond 
high  school  graduation.  But  there  will  always  be  some 
persons  of  good  ability  who  discover  themselves  rather 
late  and  who  will  find  themselves  handicapped  in  taking 
up  university  work  at  the  close  of  junior  college  training 
and  who  face  the  necessity  of  some  loss  of  time  in  adjust- 
ment. Students  of  this  class  can  be  dealt  with  as  in- 
dividuals, as  in  the  case  of  those  coming  to  universities 
from  unclassified  institutions. 

University  curricula  must  be  based  on  fundamental 
courses  conducted  in  the  scientific  spirit.  A  student 
trained  for  two  years  after  graduation  from  high  school 
in  courses  designed  to  furnish  a  short  cut  to  practical 
efficiency  cannot  without  loss  of  time  fit  into  a  university 
curriculum  designed  to  cultivate  the  spirit  of  investiga- 
tion and  to  furnish  mastery  through  the  application  of 
scientific  principles.  It  is  therefore  probably  wisest  for 
a  university  frankly  to  take  the  ground  that  the  type  of 
vocational  training  that  can  be  offered  in  the  junior  col- 
lege is  not  comparable  with  university  courses  in  engi- 
neering, home  economics,  commerce,  etc.,  which  are  based 
upon  two  years  of  college  science  as  prerequisite.  Such  an 
attitude  on  the  part  of  the  universities  will  have  the  ad- 
ditional value  of  leading  junior  college  students  and 
teachers  to  reflect  on  the  probable  future  educational 
opportunities  of  the  students  before  determining  their 
immediate  selection  of  courses. 

The  future  of  the  junior  college  and  its  place  in  our 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  197 

system  of  education  are  of  course  no  more  certain  than  in 
the  case  of  the  standard  college  and  the  present  high 
school.  Personally,  I  believe  that  our  entire  system  needs 
overhauling — in  fact,  many  students  of  educational  prob- 
lems have  been  so  convinced  for  several  years — and  the 
present  conditions  in  our  large  universities  may  help  to 
bring  home  this  conviction  to  those  who  have  hitherto 
been  indifferent  and  inclined  to  let  things  drift,  assuming 
that  the  system  could  not  be  changed.  Then,  too,  since 
America  entered  the  war  it  has  been  a  little  easier  to  get 
a  hearing  on  the  part  of  public  school  teachers  and  those 
interested  in  the  public  school  by  pointing  out  that  our 
elementary  school  of  eight  grades  is  not  of  divine  origin, 
but  is  a  copy  of  the  "Volkschule"  of  Prussia;  that  in 
Germany  this  school  is  a  finishing  school  for  the  peasants, 
whereas  we  have  made  it  a  foundation  for  the  super- 
structure of  secondary  and  higher  education,  thus  pro- 
longing the  period  of  general  education  and  wasting  time 
by  spending  eight  years  in  teaching  the  school  arts  that 
probably  could  be  mastered  in  six.  On  the  other  hand, 
our  public  high  school,  probably  copied  originally  from 
Edinburgh,  began  with  three  years  of  instruction,  in- 
creased to  four,  and  now  stands  ready  in  all  but  the 
smallest  towns  to  expand  its  program  to  six  years,  in  the 
belief  that  it  can  not  only  prepare  students  to  meet  the 
present  college  entrance  requirements  but  also  absorb  the 
present  freshmen  courses.  The  American  college  was  and 
in  part  still  is  a  secondary  school,  suited  to  the  educa- 
tional needs  of  youth  in  the  later  teens,  while  the  de- 
velopment of  American  universities  with  the  college  as 
the  center  and  heart  of  their  life  and  instruction,  instead 
of  their  preparatory  division,  has  brought  confusion  of 
terms  and  standards  into  our  higher  education. 

Should  the  public  school  system  be  so  reorganized  as 
to  have  six  elementary  and  six  secondary  grades,  the 


198  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

latter  would  doubtless  be  subdivided  so  as  to  provide  for 
a  junior  high  school  of  two  or  three  years;  and  the  junior 
college  would  find  a  natural  place  as  a  three  or  four  year 
institution  requiring  junior  high  school  preparation  for 
admission.  The  very  large  number  of  communities  that 
would  be  able  to  maintain  junior  high  schools  only  would 
create  a  situation  which  would  furnish  a  much  larger 
field  for  junior  colleges  of  the  new  type  than  exists  for 
the  two-year  junior  college  doing  freshman  and  sopho- 
more college  work.  Should  the  junior  college  then  par- 
allel and  duplicate  the  senior  high  school  in  large  meas- 
ure, there  would  be  nothing  more  illogical  about  that 
situation  than  is  found  to-day  in  the  relation  of  standard 
college  and  university.  The  public  junior  college  would 
perhaps  disappear,  but  a  new  field  of  cooperation  be- 
tween public  and  private  effort  in  the  education  of  youth 
w^ould  be  opened  up  and  the  private  junior  college  would 
assume  large  significance. 

But  the  question  of  the  effect  of  educational  move- 
ments upon  institutions  is  after  all  only  incidental.  Col- 
leges and  schools  are  destined  to  survive  in  lives  enriched, 
enobled,  and  blessed;  in  ideas  and  aspirations  and 
ideals  that  stir  men's  minds  and  arouse  their  souls  to 
nobler  and  to  vaster  issues;  in  improved  conditions  of 
society  as  a  result  of  the  work  of  their  former  students; 
and  they  will  find  their  justification  in  the  contributions 
they  thus  make  to  American  society  and  to  the  American 
system  of  education  in  its  onward  triumphal  march. 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  THE  UNITS  OF  THE  EDU- 
CATIONAL SYSTEM  TO  MEET  THE  NEEDS  OF 
VARYING  TYPES  OF  STUDENTS 


CHARLES   A,   PROSSER,   PH.D. 

Director  of  The  William  Hood  Dunwoody  Institute 


Modem  society  has  become  self-conscious  of  its 
weaknesses  and  its  possibilities,  and  is  deliberately  plan- 
ning to  control  its  own  environment  and  shape  its  own 
destiny.  Of  no  people  is  this  so  true  as  of  our  own  coun- 
try. The  causes  for  the  growth  of  this  conscious  and 
deliberate  constructive  spirit  are  many. 

We  have  become  keenly  sensitive  to  human  incapa- 
city, suffering,  and  waste.  Experience,  verified  by  scien- 
tific knowledge  and  investigation,  has  given  us  a  guilty 
knowledge,  from  which  we  cannot  escape,  of  the  causes 
and  the  remedies  for  human  shortcomings  and  social  de- 
fects. 

Swelling  social  resources  provide  the  means  to  pro- 
mote through  collective  action  a  widening  social  program 
of  human  betterment.  Finally,  science  has  furnished  the 
tested  knowledge  in  many  fields  that  can  be  applied  in 
many  ways  and  through  various  agencies  to  the  improve- 
ment of  social  conditions  and  the  advancement  of  social 
well-being. 

These  causes  and  this  constructive  spirit  had  already 
brought,  even  before  the  Great  War,  the  breakdown  of 
faith  in  older  customs,  as  well  as  doctrines,  and  a 
period  of  transition  in  our  institutional  life  which  the 
European  conflict  has  made  a  demand,  constantly  grow- 
ing more  articulate,  for  readjustment. 

The  readjustment  will  be  made,  as  it  has  already 
been  made  in  some  unhappy  nations  on  the  Continent,  by 


200  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

revolution;  or  it  will  be  made  in  the  strength  and  se- 
curity of  our  democracy,  by  the  application  of  a  wise 
"social  economy."  Social  economy  as  here  used  is  the 
conscious  effort  of  society  to  transform  and  adapt  insti- 
tutions by  the  more  purposeful  use  of  scientific  know- 
ledge for  human  betterment. 

The  demand  for  transformation  in  our  institutions 
apparently  holds  little  if  anything  in  the  old  order 
sacred.  It  has  already  brought  or  forced  sweeping 
changes  not  yet  fully  consununated  in  religion,  in  govern- 
ment, in  the  administration  of  justice,  in  suffrage,  in 
sumptuarv^  laws,  in  the  family  relationship,  in  inter- 
national relations,  and  in  the  social  side  of  modern  in- 
dustry. A  careful  study  of  the  transformations  which  are 
being  brought  about  in  these  institutions  will  show  that, 
practically  without  exception,  they  have  been  imposed 
from  without  by  the  demands — the  social  action — of  a 
majority  of  public  opinion,  usually  without  the  help  and 
frequently  against  the  opposition  of  those  actively  en- 
gaged in  carrying  on  the  work  of  the  institution  itself. 

The  spotlight  of  criticism — the  demand  for  better 
adaptation — has  been  directed  as  strongly  against  educa- 
tion as,  if  not  more  strongly  than,  against  any  other  social 
agency.  This  is  by  no  means  because  the  schools  are  re- 
garded as  being  less  efficient,  but  rather  because  society 
relies  upon  them  more  and  expects  more  of  them  as  an  in- 
stitution for  realizing  its  conscious,  far-reaching  aims. 
We  have  come  to  believe  that  the  hope  of  each  generation 
lies  in  the  improvement  through  its  children  of  the  next 
succeeding  generation  through  processes  that  are  essen- 
tially educational — the  fixing  of  habits,  the  imparting  of 
knowledge,  the  development  of  ideals.  From  this  view- 
point education  is  one  of  the  largest  aspects,  if  not  the 
largest,  of  social  economy. 

Not  all  education  is  given  by  the  school,  but  by  home 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  201 

and  church  and  farm  and  shop  and  office  and  playground 
as  well.  But  of  these,  the  public  school,  from  kindergarten 
to  university,  is  the  only  educational  institution  under  the 
direct  control  of  the  State  and  therefore  is  the  only  edu- 
cational agency  which  social  economy  can  make  directly 
responsive  to  its  will  and  adapt  to  meet  changing  social 
conditions  and  demands.  The  public  school  is  the  agency 
on  which  conscious  social  action  must  rely  in  its  efforts  to 
better  the  social  order  by  the  training  of  its  youth. 

The  overwhelming  majority  of  each  generation  in 
this  democracy  is  trained  in  the  public  schools.  In  its 
determination  to  confer  on  each  youth  the  habits,  know- 
ledge, and  ideals  which  it  regards  in  any  age  as  necessary 
to  good  citizenship  and  social  efficiency,  society  must 
look  to  the  public  schools  for  this  service  whenever  home 
or  church  or  shop  fail  to  assume  it  or  properly  to  perform 
it. 

As  final  custodian  for  society  of  the  interests  and 
well-being  of  childhood,  the  public  school  must  to  an  in- 
creasing degree  improve  and  adapt  its  own  work  to 
changing  conditions  and  rising  social  demands  and  as- 
sume those  functions  of  other  educational  agencies  which 
they  from  time  to  time  can  no  longer  discharge  properly. 
It  must  shed  its  old  self-sufficiency  and  aloofness  and 
become  the  leader — the  conscious  complimentary  and  co- 
operating agency  for  the  coordination  of  the  educational 
activities  of  all  social  agencies.  As  the  institution  pri- 
marily concerned  and  responsible  for  the  conservation  of 
childhood,  it  must  vision  aims  and  methods,  enter  into 
sympathetic  helpful,  team-play  with  other  institutions, 
and  influence  and  inspire  them  with  the  soundness  of  its 
forward-looking  program,  the  enthusiasm  of  its  own 
service,  the  efficiency  of  its  own  work,  and  the  sincerity 
and  worth  of  its  proposals  for  the  discharge  of  a  joint 
responsibility  for  social  progress. 


202  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

Whatever  may  be  the  conscious  aim  of  social  econo- 
my elsewhere,  in  a  democracy  it  is  the  effort,  never  to  be 
fully  realized  short  of  the  Millenium,  to  make  or  help  the 
individual  make  the  most  of  himself  and  contribute  the 
most  and  best  of  which  he  is  capable  to  social  well-being. 
The  task  before  any  age  of  properly  adapting  the  youth 
to  a  changing  environment  and  rising  social  ideals  of  con- 
duct and  ser\ace  would  be  a  very  difficult  one  if  all  the 
children  of  this  democracy  were  of  one  pattern  in  their 
economic  condition,  their  capacities,  and  their  interests 
and  temperaments,  and  if  the  resources  of  the  state  made 
it  possible  to  provide  for  each  and  all  of  them  the  longest 
period  of  infancy  and  the  best  training  which  vision 
could  dream  and  science  put  into  effect. 

It  is  fortunate  rather  than  unfortunate  for  the  rich- 
ness of  life  and  for  social  progress  that  children,  like 
men,  are  not  of  the  same  drab  pattern.  Otherwise  life 
would  pall  from  monotony  and  society  stagnate  from 
uniformity.  Rather  do  our  youth  present  every  conceiv- 
able variety  and  variation  in  pattern,  for  they  run  the 
whole  gamut  of  interests,  tendencies,  and  capacities,  in 
the  face  of  which  the  continual  effort  in  many  quarters 
to  perpetuate  a  uniform  program  of  education  for  all  be- 
comes obsolete  in  aim  and  futile  in  results.  Moreover, 
while  the  social  wealth  of  each  succeeding  era  in  our 
history  as  a  nation  justifies  and  permits  a  better  program 
of  social  economy,  there  is  and  probably  always  will  be 
a  limit  to  the  program  which  the  state  can  support  for 
the  education  of  its  youth.  There  certainly  is  a  limit  to 
the  economic  resources  of  the  mass  of  our  people,  and, 
therefore,  to  the  period  of  infancy  and  social  adjustment 
for  their  children  which  they  can  support. 

Because  of  these  limitations,  patent  alike  to  the  most 
superficial  thinker  and  the  most  unyielding  apostle  of 
cultural  training  as  the  sole  function  of  the  schools,  edu- 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  203 

cation  as  the  chief  agency  in  our  social  economy  can 
never  again  be  uniform  but  rather  infinitely  differentiated 
and  diversified  if  the  youth  of  the  nation  with  their 
infinite  variety  of  interest,  capacities,  and  condition  are 
to  be  so  trained  into  self-realization  that  they  will  make 
the  most  of  themselves  and  therefore  contribute  most  to 
social  well-being.  Uniformity  in  the  units  of  our  school 
system  and  in  courses  of  instruction  must  give  way  rapid- 
ly to  differentiation;  adaptation  must  take  the  place  of 
ministration  to  a  restricted  social  class;  and  rigid  pro- 
grams and  entrance  requirements  must  be  succeeded  by 
an  earnest  search  for  groups  having  common  needs,  and, 
to  use  Dr.  Snedden's  expressive  phrase,  be  to  an  indefinite 
extent  adapted  to  varying  groups. 

As  with  other  educational  agencies,  and  as  is  always 
to  be  expected,  the  social  demand  for  the  readjustment  of 
our  public  school  programs  has  been  met  with  determined 
resistance  in  some  quarters  from  within  the  ranks  of 
those  actively  engaged  in  educational  work.  I  am  not  so 
sure  but  that,  on  the  whole,  this  resistance,  within  meas- 
ured limits  at  least,  against  changes,  particularly  against 
sweeping  transformation  on  the  part  of  social  institu- 
tions, is  after  all  a  benefit  rather  than  an  injury  to  the 
proposed  reform.  Resistance  to  the  change  may  be  irri- 
tating, but  it  insures  a  careful  examination  of  all  the 
issues  and  problems  involved  and  the  careful,  gradual, 
systematic  introduction  and  adaptation  of  the  new  pro- 
gram. Possibly  even  the  thunderous  declaration  by  the 
evangelist  and  the  back  woods  exhorter  of  their  undis- 
turbed faith  that  the  whale  swollowed  Jonah  has  as  an  aid 
to  social  control  brought  to  many  people  a  gradual  adjust- 
ment to  the  teaching  of  higher  criticism  without  disturb- 
ing their  fundamenal  belief  in  the  eternal  verities  of  re- 
ligion or  the  inspired  character  of  the  scriptures. 

It  is  only  fair  to  say  for  the  school  men  of  the  coun- 


204  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

try  that,  in  spite  of  the  impatience  of  the  reformer  with 
many  of  them,  they  have  on  the  whole  been  more  respon- 
sive to  the  demands  for  changes  and  adaptations  in  our 
educational  institutions  than  have  those  personally  res- 
ponsible for  other  social  institutions  to  the  pressure  for 
reform, — more  responsive  than  the  theologian  to  religious 
adjustments;  than  the  legal  profession  to  social  obliga- 
tion, and  the  reform  of  court  procedure  in  the  interest  of 
social  justice;  than  the  medical  profession  to  new  pro- 
grams of  public  health;  than  capital  and  labor  to  our 
growing  impatience  with  class  controversies  whose  evil 
results  interfere  with  public  safety  and  social  well-being. 

For  two  decades  educational  thinkers  in  advance  of 
any  crystallized  public  thought  have  been  stating  the  aim 
of  the  educational  processes  in  terms  of  the  social  econo- 
my of  this  era  and  the  mission  of  the  schools.  Prepara- 
tion for  citizenship,  preparation  for  life,  preparation  for 
complete  living,  education  for  efficiency,  conservation  of 
childhood — any  or  all  of  these  state  in  sweeping  phrase 
a  new  mission  for  the  schools  over  against  the  narrow, 
rigid,  one  is  almost  tempted  to  say  unsocial,  programs 
and  methods  of  the  traditional  school. 

"While  here  and  there  and  sometimes  in  considerable 
numbers,  we  find  within  the  schools  the  educational 
counterpart  of  those  who  still  cling  to  outworn  religious 
or  social  beliefs  and  practices,  the  educators  of  the  coun- 
try taken  as  a  whole  are  with  a  deep  sincerity  responding 
to  the  new  educational  demands  of  our  social  economy,  as 
readily  as,  perhaps  more  readily  than,  any  professional 
group  could  be  expected  to  surrender  old  convictions  and 
old  methods,  perhaps  as  quickly  as  the  resources  of  the 
schools  will  permit,  and  possibly  with  as  much  perma- 
nent progress  as  the  traditions  of  the  schools  and  the 
proof  of  the  wisdom  of  proposed  changes  will  justify.  So 
time  is  this  that  if  we  look  upon  the  educational  system 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  205 

of  the  country  as  a  work  shop  and  laboratory,  it  to-day  is 
testing  somewhere  as  an  experiment,  although  unfortun- 
ately perhaps  in  piecemeal,  every  proposed  change  which 
the  social  economy  of  our  day  is  urging  on  the  schools. 
This  does  not  by  any  means  insure  that  these  tests  are  be- 
ing made  under  the  final  conditions  as  to  organiza- 
tion and  method  which  the  reform  must  take,  nor  that  the 
tryout  of  the  new  program,  or  course,  or  device  is  always 
being  made  by  persons  competent  in  experience  or 
sympathetic  understanding  for  the  experiment.  It  does 
mean,  however,  that  we  are  on  our  way  to  pronounced 
changes  in  our  educational  program  for  the  adaptation  of 
many-sided  youth  to  the  demands  of  his  environment. 

On  the  threshold  of  pronounced  changes  and  adap- 
tations certain  to  come,  much  would  be  gained  if  edu- 
cators from  college  presidents  to  kindergartners  could 
become  as  a  group  more  tolerant  and  appreciative  of  the 
educational  theorist  or  the  practical  reformer  proposing 
innovations  in  the  work  of  the  schools.  They  can  afford 
to  forget  the  vigor,  even  bitterness,  of  his  criticism  in  an 
unbiased  search  for  the  soundness  of  his  proposals. 
Possibly  they  may  gain  from  time  to  time  valuable  sug- 
gestions from  him  and  catch  the  voice  of  a  complex  social 
order  making  articulate  through  him  its  new  social  de- 
mands upon  the  schools. 

This  better  understanding  requires  also  that  the  edu- 
cational theorist  or  reformer  become  more  tolerant  and 
appreciative  of  educators.  He  can  afford  to  forget  the 
vigor  and  bitterness  of  the  opposition  to  his  program — 
even  the  professional  ostracism  that  sometimes  comes  to 
those  who  fail  to  conform.  He  can  gain  from  counter 
criticism  constructive  suggestions  for  the  modifications 
of  his  plan  and  catch  amid  the  noise  of  opposition  new 
glimpses  of  the  fundamental  worth  of  the  school  system 


206  EDUCATIOX.\L  SESSION 

and  the  earnest  desire  of  all  true  educational  leaders  to 
make  the  schools  more  effective  social  instruments. 

Since  a  uniform  program  of  education  is  no  longer 
possible  in  the  social  economy  of  a  democracy  seeking 
through  training  the  realization  by  many-sided  youth  of 
its  infinite  possibilities,  and  since  to  an  indefinite  extent 
programs  must  be  adapted  to  the  needs  and  opportunities 
of  varying  groups,  it  follows  that  differentiation  and 
adaptation  must  take  the  place  of  our  formal  organiza- 
tions, our  uniform  courses  of  study,  our  rigid  entrance  re- 
quirements, and  our  traditional  methods  of  teaching. 
Spite  of  all  the  changes  made,  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  "they  are  being  grafted  on  the  machinery  of  an 
older  educational  organization  which  had  a  limited  social 
aim,  a  narrowly  defined  group,  and  fixed  methods  em- 
pirically derived."  Consequently  its  administrative 
organization,  well  adapted  to  its  scope  and  purposes,  can- 
not serve  effectively  for  our  day. 

''The  new  education  will  obviously  have  to  possess 
far  wider  and  more  purposeful  aims;  its  range  or  adapt- 
ability will  of  necessity  be  immeasurably  greater;  its 
methods  must  rest  on  a  scientific  basis;  and  its  organiza- 
tion must  become  complex  and  flexible  in  order  to  pro- 
duce an  efficient  combination  of  democratic  control  and 
technical  direction."  These  changes  must  come  if  we 
are  to  carry  differentiation  and  adaptation  in  our  educa- 
tional processes  to  the  point  where  it  will  ''enable  each 
individual  to  make  the  most  of  himself  while  at  the  same 
time  contributing  in  as  large  a  degree  as  possible  to  the 
general  well-being."  'We  are  here  concerned,  however, 
with  only  one  phase  of  this  many-sided  problem  of  adapt- 
ing our  educational  system  to  the  new  program,  and  that 
is  with  differentiation  in  the  units  of  the  school  system. 

Entirely  aside  from  the  demands  of  our  social  econo- 
my, differentiation  in  the  functions  of  our  social  institu- 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  207 

tions,  including  the  schools,  is  inevitable  in  spite  of  the 
devoted  opposition  of  the  devotees  of  a  uniform  course  of 
study.  Without  differentiation  and  transmission  of  the 
traits  that  make  for  survival,  there  would  be  no  human 
beings  on  the  globe.  Society  itself,  like  the  cosmos  and 
living  organisms,  in  its  development  evolves  from  the 
homogeneous  or  uniform  to  the  heterogeneous  and  dif- 
ferentiated. Modern  production  is  built  upon  the  divi- 
sion of  labor  in  the  performance  of  tasks,  which  is  after 
all  but  the  differentiation,  the  selection  and  adaptation, 
of  workers  and  tasks.  Social  thinking  began  with  the 
impersonal,  materialistic,  economic  man;  but  conscious 
social  economy  starts  with  the  individual  man  and  ends 
with  the  differentiation  of  all  men  into  groups  with 
common  needs  and  characteristics,  for  social  conserv^a- 
tion. 

There  are  a  number  of  retreats  from  the  proposal  to 
differentiate  the  units  of  our  school  system  in  order 
better  to  adapt  human  beings  for  individual  and  social 
well-being.  One  is  to  take  refuge  behind  the  oft-repeated 
claim  that  the  demands  of  democracy  require  a  uniform 
system  of  education  for  all.  This  argument  was  used 
with  great  effect  for  many  years  against  the  demand  for 
wider  differentiation  in  the  courses  of  study  in  our  higher 
institutions  of  learning,  but  the  modern  university,  par- 
ticularly the  state  university,  has  in  response  to  the  social 
need  for  trained  leadership  along  many  lines  differentiat- 
ed the  curriculum  of  its  special  schools  into  a  bewildering 
list  of  special  courses  designed  to  prepare  its  students  for 
a  multitude  of  technical  social  demands.  Even  the  college 
of  liberal  arts,  responding  to  the  growth  and  organization 
of  old  as  well  as  new  subject  matter  and  to  the  special 
interests  and  capacities  of  its  students,  presents  an  array 
of  special  courses  in  each  department  equally  imposing. 

Some  of  those  intimately  engaged  in  the  commend- 


208  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

able  task  of  widening  and  enriching  the  curriculum  of  the 
university  and  its  special  schools  must  be  counted  in  the 
number  of  those  who  oppose  differentiation  and  adapta- 
tion in  the  courses  of  study  below  the  college  on  the 
ground  that  such  courses  are  undemocratic.  Is  it  unfair 
to  ask  why  the  distinction?  If  it  be  democratic  to  dif- 
ferentiate in  order  better  to  adjust  the  college  student  to 
the  demands  of  his  environment,  why  is  it  undemocratic 
to  differentiate  the  work  of  the  secondary  schools  for  the 
same  purpose  ? 

It  is  no  answer  to  say  that  students  of  college  age, 
being  more  mature,  know  what  they  want  to  do  and  be 
and  therefore  are  able  to  choose  their  course  and  select 
their  electives.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  deplorable  number 
of  college  students  not  only  do  not  know  what  they  want 
but  enroll  for  a  variety  of  motives,  many  of  which  are 
anything  else  but  serious  and  social,  as  I  here  use  the 
word.  For  the  children  of  the  masses,  leaving  school  to 
go  to  work  at  the  age  when  the  more  fortunate  are  prepar- 
ing to  go  to  college  is  a  certainty  so  imminent  as  to  make 
them  much  more  reflective  and  serious  in  their  choice  of 
an  occupation  and  of  training  for  it.  At  least  that  has 
been  my  experience  in  dealing  with  the  wage-earning 
youth  and  the  student  of  the  industrial  and  trade  schools. 

In  spite  of  the  theory  that  everybody  ought  to  com- 
plete the  regular  high  school  and  go  to  college,  only  a  few 
hundred  thousand  are  able  in  our  day  to  take  this  means 
of  realizing  their  possibilities  and  of  adapting  themselves 
to  life  through  the  differentiated  courses  of  instruction  in 
the  larger  and  more  liberal  of  our  higher  institutions 
of  learning.  Millions  do  not  and  cannot.  The  policy 
of  the  open  door  of  opportunity  for  all  thrills  the  pride 
of  a  democracy,  but  it  does  not  meet  the  cold  fact  that 
the  failure  to  provide  more  differentiated  courses  of 
study  below  the  college  denies  in  reality  not  the  open  door 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  209 

which  they  are  not  in  a  position  to  enter  but  the  right 
properly  to  be  adapted  to  life  of  the  overwhelming  mass  of 
the  citizens  of  this  country. 

The  contention  for  a  uniform  educational  program 
below  the  college  rests  with  many  upon  considerations  of 
convenience  in  administration,  but  with  a  great  many 
very  sincere  people  it  has  its  origin  in  the  fear  of  class 
education  which  they  believe  is  sure  to  result  from  setting 
special  courses  in  the  secondary  schools,  particularly 
those  designed  to  give  preparation  for  wage  earning 
rather  than  graduation  from  regular  high  school  courses 
and  preparation  for  college.  They  believe  that  this  special 
education  of  specific  groups  in  differentiated  courses  will 
tend  to  disturb  a  democratic  spirit  which  is  believed  to 
exist  in  the  cosmopolitan  high  school  and  will  therefore 
result  in  greater  class  distinction. 

I  am  not  so  certain  that  if  this  contention  were  pushed 
to  its  logical  conclusion  it  might  furnish  a  very  strong 
argument  against  college  education,  possibly  against  the 
regular  high  school.  For  in  spite  of  the  open  door  to  those 
able  to  meet  their  entrance  requirements  and  with  the  eco- 
nomic resources  to  continue  their  training,  colleges  and 
high  schools  do  give  class  education.  The  ovenvhelming 
majority  of  the  youth  of  the  nation  never  see  the  inside  of 
a  college,  and  millions  do  not  and  cannot  pursue  and  finish 
the  complete  course  of  the  regular  high  school.  Further- 
more, as  it  should  be,  the  courses  of  instruction  of  colleges 
and  regular  high  schools  are  differentiated  and  adapted  to 
the  interests  of  those  who  attend.  This  is  in  no  sense 
meant  to  be  an  attack  on  these  institutions  with  their 
worthy  ends  and  great  social  achievements  and  service, 
but  it  does  serve  to  point  out  the  fact  that  to  the  extent 
that  our  courses  of  study  remain  inflexible  and  high 
schools  continue  to  serve  the  needs  of  a  limited  and  for- 


210  EDUCATIOX.\L  SESSION 

tunate  social  group  they  are  differentiating  and  therefore 

discriminating  between  the  youth  of  a  democracy. 

In  native  capacity,  economic  condition,  and  therefore 
in  educational  needs,  people  are  unequal  at  birth  and  can 
in  no  way  and  by  no  scheme  be  made  equal.  An  educa- 
tional system  that  is  to  serve  the  needs  of  a  democracy  and 
prove  an  effective  instrument  in  social  economy  must  be 
infinitely  flexible  in  order  that  it  may  provide  each  of  the 
youth  of  the  country  the  educational  opportunities  which 
will  enable  him  best  to  serve  society  and  himself. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  they  who  oppose  the  es- 
tablishment of  effective  trade  schools  because  they  suspect 
that  these  tend  to  create  class  distinctions  forget  what 
class  distinctions  are  even  now  enforced  by  uniform  pro- 
grams of  studies  appealing  only  to  the  interests  and  abili- 
ties of  those  possessing  unusual  powers  of  abstract  think- 
ing. 

Because  most  of  the  pressure  against  uniform  courses 
of  study  comes  from  the  social  demand  upon  the  schools 
for  the  admission  of  vocational  training  into  the  system, 
the  opposition  to  differentiation  centers  upon  this  new 
movement  which  it  resists  as  undemocratic.  But  you  can 
not  dismiss  a  cause  which  has  become  the  subject  of  state 
and  national  subsidies  with  a  phrase.  If  vocational  edu- 
cation be  undemocratic,  then  a  large  majority  of  the 
citizens  of  this  country  have  through  their  legally  con- 
stituted representatives  struck  at  the  foundations  of  the 
republic  and  thousands  of  public  school  and  college  men 
share  in  the  guilt.  Vocational  education  would  be  un- 
democratic if  it  were  compulsory  and  imposed  on  our 
youth  the  choice  of  a  career  and  training  for  it.  But  the 
facts  are  that  admission  to  vocational  schools  is  not  only 
predicated  upon  common  school  training  but  conditioned 
practically  everywhere  upon  the  completion  of  com- 
pulsory school  attendance. 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  211 

Vocational  education  would  be  undemocratic  if  it  pro- 
posed to  remove  or  so  hamper  as  to  remove  the  regular 
high  school  courses  and  thus  take  away  from  large  num- 
bers of  students  their  right  to  vocational  adaptation 
through  either  high  school  or  college  instruction.  Eather 
than  this,  vocational  education  seeks  only  the  adaptation 
of  units  and  courses  and  methods  so  as  to  give  to  others 
the  same  right  to  vocational  adjustment  now  enjoyed  only 
by  those  fitting  for  pursuits  requiring  extended  academic 
or  technical  education. 

Specialized  vocational  schools  and  courses  would  be 
undemocratic  if  they  tended,  as  has  been  charged,  to  in- 
crease or  perpetuate  inequalities  amongst  youth  and  men 
due  to  natural  conditions  which  the  state  cannot  correct, 
although  some  are  blind  enough  to  believe  that  they  can 
be  corrected  in  part  at  least  by  the  so-called  democracy  of 
common  elements  in  training  and  uniform  courses  of 
study.  As  long  as  millions  of  our  youth  leave  the  schools 
forever  as  soon  as  the  law  permits,  to  follow  entirely  with- 
out any  vocational  adaptation  careers  in  which  they  are 
permanently  anchored  as  unskilled  workmen,  they  will 
continue  to  be  a  class  apart  in  spite  of  uniform  courses  of 
study.  But  vocational  training  both  before  and  after 
th(,y  leave  the  schools,  enlarging  as  it  does  both  their 
ci"sic  and  vocational  competency,  will  not  aggravate  this 
situation  but  "lessen  rather  than  increase  the  rift  be- 
tween economic  classes. ' ' 

Vocational  schools  would  be  undemocratic  if,  as  has 
b<;en  urged,  they  tended  to  narrow  the  student  with  their 
special  courses  of  instruction.  This  misconception  rests 
largely  upon  the  failure  to  recognize  either  the  educa- 
tional and  social  value  of  orderly,  systematic,  directed 
work  under  instruction  or  the  liberal  and  cultural  value 
of  knowledge  taught  for  use.  More  serious  still,  the  al- 
ternative for  the  vocational  training  of  the  masses  under 


212  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

the  leadership  of  the  school  is  thought  to  be  regular  high 
school  education  and  a  college  career.  This  is  no  alterna- 
tive for  millions  of  wage  workers  even  if  they  wished 
such  a  career.  The  real  alternative  to  vocational  schools 
is  the  specialized,  routine,  monotonous,  purposeless  job  in 
the  factory  or  the  department  store,  where,  without  the 
help  of  training,  most  of  them  will  be  permanently 
stranded. 

Eather  than  being  undemocratic,  the  proposal  to  dif- 
ferentiate units  and  courses  in  order  to  promote  vocation- 
al, and  therefore  social,  adaptation  can  be  defended  as 
the  very  essence  of  democracy. 

The  second  retreat  of  those  who  oppose  differentia- 
tion in  the  work  of  the  units  of  the  school  system  is  the 
proposal  to  substitute  common  elements  in  training  for 
specialized  courses.  The  theory  of  common  elements  in 
training  starts  with  the  belief  that  certain  traditional 
courses  of  instruction,  such  as  mathematics,  languages, 
science,  and  history,  furnished  the  common  discipline  and 
information  essential  to  a  cultural  education  which  all 
should  take  and  take  as  prescribed.  For  long  years  this 
contention  was  urged  to  prevent  the  differentiation  of 
courses  through  the  introduction  of  new  subject  matter 
and  a  system  of  electives  in  the  college  of  liberal  arts. 
When  professional  schools  for  the  preparation  of  stu- 
dents for  technical  vocations  were  proposed  they  were 
resisted  on  the  ground  that  the  general  subjects  of  the 
liberal  arts  course  furnished  the  common  elements  of 
knowledge  in  such  subjects  as  mathematics  and  science 
necessary  for  the  vocational  competency  of  all  students 
and  that  preparation  for  the  profession  of  agriculture, 
engineering,  or  medicine  required  only  the  addition  of  a 
new  course  or  courses  in  the  special  technique  of  the  pro- 
fession to  the  liberal  arts  curriculum.  Law  and  medicine, 
engineering,  agriculture,  and  education  have  gained  their 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  213 

distinct  professional  schools  after  long  struggles  in  al- 
most every  university,  but  the  effort  to  establish  profes- 
sional schools  of  business  administration  is  being  resisted 
in  at  least  a  number  of  places  with  precisely  the  same 
argument  for  the  vocational  competency  of  common 
elements  of  knowledge  in  general  subject  matter  taught 
to  mixed  groups  of  students  with  widely  varying  ex- 
periences, interests,  and  vocational  aims. 

This  is  precisely  what  has  occurred  in  the  resistance 
to  differentiation  in  the  secondary  schools.  The  tra- 
ditional course  of  study  in  general  subjects,  prescribed  as 
entrance  requirements  by  the  college  was  declared  to  con- 
tain the  common  elements  of  knowledge  which,  to  use  the 
language  of  a  noted  Committee  from  the  N.  E.  A.,  best 
prepared  one  pupil  for  college  and  at  the  same  time  best 
prepared  the  other  for  life.  With  this  as  a  shibboleth, 
the  introduction  of  new  subjects  and  the  offering  of  elec- 
tives  was  resisted  even  more  strongly  than  in  the  colleges 
of  liberal  arts.  Practical  art  courses  were  finally  admit- 
ted on  the  ground  of  their  disciplinary  value,  since  they 
would  give  a  general  mechanical  skill  to  students  which 
they  would  be  able  to  use  in  any  trade  or  occupation. 
When  courses  for  specific  vocations  ask  for  admittance, 
they  are  opposed  because  they  give  specific  training  for 
a  vocation  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  youth,  whereas  it  is 
the  business  of  the  public  school  not  to  differentiate  but 
to  teach  common  elements  in  vocational  efficiency.  And 
when  these  specialized  courses,  designed  to  meet  the 
specific  demands  of  the  vocation  upon  the  young  wage 
worker,  are  admitted,  the  attempt  is  usually  made  to  give 
vocational  competency  in  such  studies  as  mathematics 
and  drawing  and  science,  not  by  teaching  them  as  applied 
to  the  vocation,  but  as  general  subjects  taught  to  all 
pupils  in  practically  the  same  way  with  the  hope  that 
they  may  contain  common  elements  in  training  and  that 


214  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

in  some  providentia]  manner  the  pupil  may  learn  to  use 
them  as  a  wage  worker. 

The  professional  colleges  of  our  state  universities 
have  arisen  to  provide  such  a  special  and  separate  organ- 
ization of  courses,  pupils,  and  teachers,  as  are  necessary 
in  order  effectively  to  prepare  their  students  for  the  ris- 
ing demands  of  the  profession,  and  their  success,  as  con- 
trasted with  the  old  departmental  plan  with  its  common 
elements  in  training,  explodes  completely,  so  far  as  the 
college  is  concerned,  the  old  theory  of  the  vocational  com- 
petency of  general  subjects  taught  to  mixed  groups.  The 
success  of  the  separate  industrial  and  trade  school  with 
its  separate  organization  of  courses,  pupils  and  teachers, 
as  contrasted  with  the  efforts  of  vocational  departments 
in  most  cosmopolitan  high  schools,  is  another  convincing- 
proof.  More  convincing  still,  there  is  scarcely  an  em- 
ployer or  tradesman,  if  any,  who  believes  that  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  general  mechanical  skill,  or  that  it  can  be 
trained  and  developed,  or  that  if  it  were  developed  it 
would  be  of  any  wage-earning  importance  in  the  pursuit 
of  a  trade  vocation,  or  that  there  are  common  elements 
of  either  mechanical  skill  or  technical  knowledge  common 
to  a  group  of  occupations,  or  that  these  common  elements 
in  vocational  competency  can  be  taught  to  mixed  groups 
effectively,  or  that  effective  vocational  education  can  be 
gained  in  any  other  way  than  by  the  close  interrelating  of 
real  experience  in  the  work  of  the  trade  with  the  special 
mathematics,  drawing,  and  applied  science  bearing  on 
that  work. 

Perhaps  more  deep  seated  still  is  the  fear  of  many 
high  school  and  college  men  that  the  introduction  of  new 
onits  and  courses  for  new  groups  will  lower  the  standards 
in  present  courses.  Most  of  the  private  colleges  and  uni- 
versities of  the  country  still  impose  rather  narrow  and 
rigid  entrance  requirements  upon  the  secondary  schools. 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  215 

More  responsive  to  the  public  will,  our  state  universities 
have  greatly  broadened  and  liberalized  their  standards 
of  entrance  through  the  recognition  of  high  school 
diplomas  and  the  granting  of  entrance  credits  for  satis- 
factory work  in  a  wide  range  of  electives,  even  including 
the  practical  arts.  This  has  greatly  aided  in  the  widen- 
ing and  enriching  of  the  courses  of  study  of  the  high 
school  and  helped  greatly  in  popularizing  its  work. 

While  these  more  liberal  conditions  of  admission  to 
the  university  are  most  commendable  and  a  step  in  the 
right  direction,  they  offer  practically  no  relief  to  public 
schools  in  the  conduct  of  serious  vocational  education 
for  those  not  going  to  college.  We  know  from  long  ex- 
perience that  practically  no  pupils  who  take  special  trade 
instruction  with  a  serious  purpose  ever  plan  to  go  to  col- 
lege or  ever  go  to  college,  and  that  the  demands  of  their 
chosen  vocation  are  such  as  to  require  direct,  thorough 
preparation  in  applied  mathematics,  drawing,  and  sci- 
ence, as  well  as  in  real  shop  work  carried  on  mider  con- 
ditions and  for  the  length  of  time  that  will  give  real  skill 
and  insight.  Therefore,  I  personally  believe  that  all 
special  courses  aiming  to  give  vocational  competency 
should  not  be  open  to  a  youth  until  he  has  finished  all  the 
general  education  he  wishes  to  take  and  is  ready  to  re- 
ceive direct  preparation  for  a  specific  pursuit.  From  this 
viewpoint  it  follows  that  special  vocational  courses 
should  be  built  on  general  education;  should  prepare  for 
advantageous  entrance  to  the  vocation,  and,  therefore, 
give  the  pupil  a  real  wage-earning  asset;  should  lay  the 
emphasis  beyond  civics  and  English,  at  least  on  voca- 
tional subjects;  and  should  be  a  finishing  course  con- 
cerned with  the  teaching  of  vocational  competency  and 
not  with  academic  credits. 

Nevertheless,  the  relation  of  special  vocational 
courses  to   the   college   requirements  presents   a   grave 


216  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

dilemma  to  the  school  official  accustomed  to  measure  and 
grade  pupils  and  organize  courses  of  study  in  terms  of 
college  credits.  So  deep  seated  is  this  habit  that  in  many 
instances,  where  part  time  classes  have  been  organized  in 
the  high  school  for  the  extension  training  of  wage 
workers,  they  have  given  instruction  in  regular  high 
school  subjects  rather  than  in  subject  matter  pertinent  to 
the  trade  or  occupation  in  which  they  are  engaged. 

When  the  shop  work  for  any  trade  is  taught  by  the 
school  as  a  practical  art  and  for  a  ]3ractical  art  period 
only,  credit  on  college  entrance  is  earned  but  real  skill  in 
processes  is  sacrificed.  TThen  the  period  of  shop  work 
divides  the  school  day  with  class  work,  no  credit  on  col- 
lege entrance  is  given  for  the  increased  shop  work  and 
the  time  taken  from  the  class  work  reduces  the  credits 
earned  there  so  that  the  pupil  fails  to  receive  a  diploma. 
When  general  high  school  subjects  are  taught,  entrance 
credits  are  earned  but  at  the  expense  of  knowledge  and 
competency  in  trade  subjects;  and  when  applied  trade 
subjects  are  taught  in  the  class,  they  meet  with  the  in- 
terest of  the  pupil  and  the  approval  of  the  tradesman  but 
to  a  very  great  extent  at  least  they  are  not  recognized  on 
the  credits  necessary  to  a  diploma  and  to  college  en- 
trance. Since  the  course  must  be  measured  by  other  than 
the  uniform  standards  of  credits  applied  to  other  courses 
and  cannot  be  recognized  as  a  college  preparatory  course, 
with  the  open  door,  it  falls  into  scholastic  and  social  dis- 
favor. Faced  with  these  dilemmas,  the  schools  delay  the 
establishment  of  real  vocational  courses  or  compromise 
with  the  cultural  aims  of  the  high  school  and  fail  to  meet 
the  real  social  needs  of  the  group  taught. 

Further  to  liberalize  or  to  lower  the  entrance  re- 
quirements of  the  university  would  not  increase  the 
number  attending  college  nor  relieve  school  officials  of 
their  embarrassment  in  this  new  but  age-old  conflict  be- 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  217 

tween  formal  education  and  social  adaptation.  The 
liberalizing  of  these  requirements  so  as  to  recognize  high 
school  credits  for  new  subjects,  including  the  practical 
arts,  had  a  far-reaching  effect  in  the  right  direction  be- 
cause it  enabled  the  secondary  school  to  offer  as  electives 
courses  which  appealed  to  a  wider  variety  of  interest  on 
the  part  of  the  group  certain  to  go  to  college.  But  special 
vocational  courses  to  meet  the  specific  needs  for  voca- 
tional eflSciency  of  those  who  take  the  work  as  prepara- 
tion for  wage-earning  are  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are 
certain  not  to  go  to  college  but  to  the  farm  or  the  office, 
the  shop  or  the  factory.  This  is  still  more  true  of  courses 
for  the  extension  training  of  those  who  return  to  instruc- 
tion after  entering  employment.  No  change  in  the  en- 
trance standards  of  our  colleges  will  affect  the  path 
followed  by  this  group,  not  even  the  admission  of  pupils 
shown  by  test  to  have  the  mental  maturity  and  capacity 
to  profit  by  the  work,  nor  even  if,  as  has  been  suggested, 
the  university  should  admit  any  person  over  twenty-one 
years  of  age  regardless  of  academic  credits  to  any  course 
and  test  him  by  the  character  of  his  work. 

The  solution  of  the  dilemma  lies  with  the  public 
school  officials  and  no  longer  with  college  entrance  re- 
quirements, in  my  opinion.  The  differentiation  of  the 
work  of  the  secondary  school  rests  upon  social  and  no 
longer  on  academic  considerations,  and  the  technicali- 
ties of  college  credits.  School  officials  are  not  in  re- 
volt against  the  university  when  they  establish  dif- 
ferentiated courses  of  instruction  for  persons  of  second- 
ary school  age  who  neither  want  nor  receive  credits  for 
college  entrance.  They  are  simply  doing  for  the  adoles- 
cent exactly  the  same  thing  as  the  university  is  doing 
through  its  special  schools  for  the  more  mature — helping 
them  to  realize  their  interests  and  capacities  so  that  they 


218  EDUCATION.\L  SESSION 

may  make  the  most  of  themselves  and  contribute  the 

most  of  which  they  are  capable  to  social  well-being. 

Differentiation  in  the  secondary  school  process  has 
in  the  past  been  largely  a  refinement  of  facilities  for  the 
better  training  of  a  group  college  bound.  It  will  become 
also  an  adaptation  of  ser^dce  to  all  groups  not  college 
bound  when  we  lay  the  emphasis  on  the  social  mission  of 
the  public  schools  as  the  instruments  of  a  conscious 
social  economy  rather  than  upon  cultural  courses  and 
formalized  procedure. 

A  diagram  of  the  courses  of  study  from  the  primary 
grades  through  the  special  schools  and  graduate  work  of 
the  university  is  the  picture  of  a  fan  with  a  small  com- 
pact handle  at  its  base  for  the  elementary  school,  a  few 
spreading  ribs  for  the  secondary  period,  and  a  wide  flare 
of  schools,  departments,  units,  and  courses  for  the  college 
and  university.  While  in  the  very  nature  of  its  task  of 
giving  young  children  the  tools  of  interpretation  for  life 
and  further  training,  the  program  of  the  elementary 
school  must  always  remain  more  or  less  uniform  and 
homogenous,  there  are  already  signs  to  indicate  that  even 
here  greater  flexibility  must  come  in  the  regions  of  physi- 
cal, moral,  and  manual  education  and  probably  in  re- 
ligious education  as  well. 

It  is  in  the  secondary  or  middle  part  of  the  educa- 
tional spread,  that  social  economy  is  to-day  demanding  a 
far  wider  differentiation  of  units  and  courses,  so  that  the 
adolescent  to  whom  this  stage  is  the  last  period  of  adjust- 
ment before  he  enters  upon  self  dependent  life  may  be 
better  adapted  for  personal  and  social  efficiency.  These 
proposals  and  needs  for  diversification  are  bewildering 
in  number  and  variety.  The  junior  high  school  has  arisen 
for  the  better  adaptation  of  the  youth  from  twelve  to 
fourteen  years  of  age  to  social  and  educational  demands 
and  possibilities,  but  there  is  already  great  danger  that 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  219 

this  new  unit  imposed  between  the  elementary  school 
and  the  high  school  for  the  benefit  of  a  group  of  children, 
for  more  than  three  out  of  four  of  whom  it  constitutes 
a  finishing  school  for  life,  will  serve  the  needs  of  the 
regular  high  school  for  selection,  elimination,  and  specific 
preparation  far  better  than  it  does  the  social  and  eco- 
nomic needs  of  the  larger  group. 

The  proposal  to  establish  junior  colleges  in  our 
larger  and  more  prosperous  small  communities  so  that 
the  youth  may  secure  his  freshman  year  at  home  has 
much  of  merit  in  it.  Undoubtedly  it  would  relieve,  in  part 
at  least,  the  state  university  of  a  large  expense  which 
would  be  met  by  the  local  school  system.  Many  students 
of  immature  years  would  be  better  conserved  by  another 
year  at  home,  and  the  mortality  of  the  first  year  of  college 
would  doubtless  be  reduced.  There  is,  however,  much 
more  than  a  fancied  danger  that  a  serious  loss  in  interest 
and  purposefulness  of  work  would  result  because  of  the 
inability  of  the  locality  to  provide  the  electives  now 
offered  by  the  university.  It  is  not  at  all  improbable 
that  in  some  communities  the  junior  college,  unduly 
emphasized,  may  even  increase  the  reliance  upon  col- 
lege entrance  standards  and  credits  at  the  expense  of 
other  educational  adaptations  to  social  demands  on  other 
groups  which  the  schools  should  make.  More  vital  still, 
the  whole  program  of  differentiation  in  the  secondary 
school  waits  not  only  upon  a  changing  social  and  educa- 
tional point  of  view  but  upon  public  resources  from  tax- 
ation as  well.  Is  it  too  radical  to  suggest  that  the  pro- 
vision of  facilities  for  the  better  preparation  of  long 
neglected  groups  for  greater  social  competency  needs  to 
be  made  the  first  consideration  ? 

The  differentiations  of  the  secondary  school  period 
need  to  be  made  in  terms  of  the  social  needs  of  all  persons 
of  secondary  school  age — by  this  I  mean  all  persons  over 


220  EDUCATIOX.U  SESSION 

fourteen  and  under  sixty,  let  us  say,  who  have  by  school- 
ing and  experience  arrived  at  a  secondary  grade  of 
maturity  of  mind  and  purpose.  Without  neglecting  one 
jot  or  tittle  the  interests  of  those  going  to  college  or 
finishing  the  regular  high  school  or  any  of  its  courses  as 
their  way  out  to  efficiency  and  happiness,  the  public 
schools  must  differentiate  sharply  between  this  group 
and  the  larger  and  many-sided  group  that  does  not,  will 
not,  or  cannot  follow  the  traditional  path.  There  is  no 
refuge  from  this  except  the  contention,  exploded  by  ex- 
perience, that  the  practically  uniform  treatment  for  all  of 
secondary  age  is  best  for  all. 

The  organized  educational  process  under  public 
auspices  centers  around  the  teaching  of  groups  having 
common  interests  and  needs — the  groups  being  large 
enough  and  the  need  worthy  enough  to  justify  public 
support.  Differentiation  for  the  purpose  of  social  adapta- 
tion is  first  of  all  the  search  for  groups  with  common 
needs.  Second,  it  is  an  analysis  of  environment  to  deter- 
mine what  is  demanded  and  therefore  what  shall  be 
taught.  Finalh^,  it  is  the  adaptation  of  courses  and 
methods  j^roperly  to  meet  the  task.  Differentiation  in 
secondary  education  needs  to  discriminate  at  the  verA^ 
outset  between  those  who  go  to  the  regular  school  to  fit 
for  college;  those  who  go  to  the  high  school  to  fit  directly 
for  social  and  vocational  competency;  those  who  leave 
school  to  go  to  work  as  soon  as  the  law  permits ;  and  those 
who  attend  school  a  year  or  two  beyond  the  compulsory 
age  limit  with  the  hope  and  desire  for  special  and  direct 
preparation  for  civic  and  wage-earning  duties. 

As  soon  as  this  analysis  is  made  there  opens  before 
the  school  almost  a  new  world  of  human  beings  and  of 
service.  At  once  the  desire  for  social  service  recognizes, 
for  example,  the  need  of  differentiation  between  those  who 
have  and  those  who  have  not  gone  to  work,  for  the  obliga- 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  221 

tion  of  the  state  does  not  cease  because  the  youth  has  be- 
come a  wage  worker,  but  is  increased  because  of  his 
larger  deficiencies.  Part  time,  half  time,  dull  season, 
general  continuation,  general  evening,  and  special  even- 
ing preparatory  and  extension  classes  in  vocational  sub- 
jects become  at  once  needed  additions  to  the  public  school 
machinery;  and  they  need  separate  organization  and 
close  supervision  of  the  important  task  of  expanding 
them  into  an  infinite  variety  of  flexible  unit  courses,  full 
courses,  and  general  courses,  presenting  a  wide  array  of 
general,  civic  and  vocational  subjects  necessary  to  the 
interests,  capacity,  and  purposes  of  this  wage-earning 
group,  many  times  as  large  as  the  adolescent  group  at- 
tending all  day  schools  and  infinitely  more  varied  in  its 
immediate  interests  and  demands.  The  task  before  the 
school  of  discharging  its  obligation  of  social  adjustment 
to  these  many-sided  groups  and  groups  differentiated 
within  groups,  is  a  new  and  sacred  responsibility  and  the 
mark  and  measure  of  the  social  worth  of  our  high  calling. 
The  problem  before  the  state  university  is  no  longer 
that  of  securing  through  the  secondary  schools  as  feeders 
a  sufficient  student  body  to  give  support  and  prestige  to 
the  university  program  and  needs.  That  day  is  past,  for 
practically  every  state  university  is  to-day  confronted 
with  a  student  body  almost  beyond  its  capacity  to  ac- 
commodate, and  every  year  the  swelling  enrollment 
breaks  all  previous  records.  There  is  some  danger  that 
we  may  measure  the  worth  of  these  institutions  by  their 
comparative  registration  rather  than  by  the  character  of 
their  work.  Numbers  are  not  always  an  index  of  excel- 
lence. Certain  it  is  that  our  universities,  dependent  upon 
public  taxation  for  their  support,  are  to-day  confronted  by 
grave  financial  and  administrative  problems  that  call  for 
readjustment  on  the  basis  of  sound  principles  and 
policies  for  the  future. 


222  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

For  the  group  it  serves,  the  state  university,  with  its 
comparative  absence  of  social  distinctions  and  its  wide 
differentiations  and  adaptations  to  the  interests  and 
needs  of  its  many-sided  student  body,  is  probably  the 
most  democratic  institution  in  the  world.  But  this  very 
democracy  of  spirit  and  service  has,  in  some  cases  at  least, 
inevitably  led  to  the  adaptation  of  standards  and  require- 
ments to  the  ability  of  students  not  conducive  to 
thorough-going  work  and  the  sound  scholarship  demand- 
ed by  the  times. 

As  a  larger  percentage  of  our  youth  go  to  college,  pro- 
bably a  larger  percentage  of  our  college  students  are  not 
capable  of  the  earnest,  purposeful,  scholarly  work  the 
university  would  like  to  require  and  in  its  upper  years,  at 
least,  should  require.  With  its  battle  for  a  large  student 
body  gloriously  won,  what  shall  be  the  policy  of  the  state 
university  for  the  future  %  Shall  it  continue  its  program 
and  effort  to  secure  greater  and  even  greater  numbers,  or 
should  it  be  content  with  a  smaller  annual  increase  in 
registration  and  use  its  opportunity  through  better 
standards  to  select  those  best  able  to  profit  by  a  college 
career  and  to  send  from  its  halls  the  youth  of  America 
better  equipped  for  leadership  ? 

It  is  altogether  likely  that  popular  opinion  will  in- 
sist that  the  state  university  shall  continue  to  be  a  place 
for  the  social  training  of  high  school  graduates,  as  well  as 
the  technical  preparation  for  leadership  of  those  who  dis- 
tinguish themselves  in  college  work.  If  this  be  true,  then 
the  university  must  continue,  through  liberal  entrance  re- 
quirements, to  accept  an  increasing  number  of  our  youth 
who  because  of  indifference  or  lack  of  capacity  are  unable 
to  measure  up  to  high  standards  of  scholarship  in  college 
classes.  To  these  undoubtedly  the  college  with  its  demo- 
cratic atmosphere  and  its  wide  diversification  of  courses 
furnishes  opportunity  for  social  training  and  for  voca- 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  223 

tional  adjustment  of  many  young  people  of  immature 
years  who  have  not  yet  found  themselves,  but  it  does  not 
do  away  with  the  fact  that  the  college  is  constantly  lower- 
ing its  standards  for  their  accommodation.  This  is  evi- 
denced by  the  large  mortality  in  the  freshman  and  sopho- 
more years,  particularly  the  freshman  year,  of  all  of  our 
higher  institutions  of  learning. 

Confronted  with  this  situation,  the  university  must 
either  surrender,  to  a  considerable  extent,  high  standards 
and  requirements  for  the  work  or  it  must  in  some  way 
differentiate  its  groups  and  courses  in  order,  on  the  one 
hand,  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  more  capable,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  do  fair  justice  by  the  halting  students  more 
or  less  on  trial  in  college  classes.  It  is  perhaps  too  early 
to  predict  how  this  will  be  done.  That  is  must  be  done  all 
are  coming  to  recognize. 

The  state  university  and  its  special  schools  should 
not  be  content  merely  to  tolerate  the  same  program  of 
wide  differentiation  in  units  and  courses  of  the  secondary 
school,  by  which  the  university  is  meeting  so  commend- 
ably  the  interest  and  need  for  vocational  competency  of 
its  students.  It  should  stimulate  public  school  officials, 
and  all  other  educational  agencies  concerned  in  any  way, 
in  their  task  of  adapting  the  organization,  courses,  and 
methods  of  the  lower  schools  to  the  life  interests  and  vo- 
cational requirements  of  all  our  youth,  whether  bound  for 
college  or  bound  for  immediate  wage  earning.  This 
service  by  the  university,  even  if  there  were  no  other  con- 
siderations involved,  requires  the  establishment  of  a  col- 
lege of  education  well  equipped  with  a  broad  outlook  and 
the  use  of  scientific  methods  to  aid  the  public  schools  in 
the  study  of  occupations,  the  search  for  groups  with 
common  needs,  the  making  of  courses  of  instruction,  the 
adaptation  of  organization,  and  the  practice  of  sound 
methods  of  teaching  new  subject  matter. 


224  EDUCATION.^  SESSION 

We  shall  have  an  infinite  differentiation  of  units  and 
courses  and  methods,  but  we  shall  gain,  beyond  all  vision 
to  conceive,  in  oneness  of  purpose  in  our  schools,  our 
democracy,  and  our  social  economy,  when  the  open  door 
of  opportunity  through  training  is  made  broad  enough  to 
include  all  the  educational  paths  that  make  for  self- 
realization  and  competency,  and  when  equality  of  privi- 
lege in  education  becomes  equality  of  right  to  the  proper 
adaptation  of  the  interests,  tendencies,  abilities,  and 
talents  of  many-sided  youth  to  the  social  and  vocational 
demands  of  the  age. 


CO-OPERATION  BETWEEN  COLLEGES  AND  UNL 

VERSITIES 

DONALD   J.    COWLING,   PH.D.,    LL.D. 

President  of  Carleton  College 


Cooperation  is  a  popular  word.  Its  spirit  is  gradual- 
ly finding  its  way  into  the  field  of  higher  education  where 
in  the  past  there  has  been  a  conspicuous  lack  of  mutual 
understanding,  sympathy,  and  cooperative  effort. 

Educational  institutions  have  regarded  each  other  as 
competitors,  and  suspicion  and  jealousy,  and  sometimes 
fear,  have  too  much  prevailed.  This  has  been  true  even  of 
institutions  of  the  same  type,  trying  to  do  the  same  work. 

I  cannot  see  very  much  difference  between  colleges 
and  universities  in  this  respect.  The  scrambling  of  a 
dozen  colleges  in  a  given  territory  for  students,  present- 
ing their  claims  as  competitors  to  high  school  graduates, 
is  not  essentially  different  in  spirit  from  the  policy  of 
three  great  universities,  which  I  happen  to  think  of,  not 
very  far  apart,  each  building  up  a  graduate  department 
in  a  certain  very  narrow  field,  when  the  faculty  and 
equipment  of  one  would  amply  provide  for  the  students 
of  all  three. 

This  lack  of  cooperation  is  still  more  evident  when 
one  compares  institutions  of  different  types,  where  dif- 
ferent ideals  and  methods  and  spirit  prevail. 

It  is  frequently  said  that  America  has  no  system  of 
education.  Whether  one  agrees  with  that  statement  or 
not,  it  certainly  comes  more  nearly  being  true  in  the  field 
of  higher  education  than  in  any  other  department  of  our 
educational  activity.    There  is  much  to  be  desired  in  the 


226  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

way  of  clarifying  our  aims,  systematizing  our  methods, 
and  broadening  and  deepening  our  sympathies. 

And  yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  mere  cooperation 
for  its  OAvn  sake  is  not  a  goal  of  any  very  great  im- 
portance. Whether  or  not  the  educational  interests  of 
the  country  would  be  furthered  by  increased  cooperative 
effort  depends  entirely  upon  the  nature  and  conditions  of 
the  cooperation. 

I  think  we  should  all  agree  that  it  is  not  desirable 
that  all  the  educational  institutions  of  this  country 
should  become  of  the  same  type,  or  that  their  forms  of 
development  should  proceed  along  identical  lines.  There 
is  room  in  this  country  for  a  great  variety  of  institutions; 
and  educational  progress  and  national  stability  are  better 
safeguarded  by  a  multiplicity  of  tjipes  than  by  a  stand- 
ardized form  which  represents  the  views  of  some  special- 
ist as  to  what  a  college  or  university  should  be.  There 
must  be  ample  opportunity  for  variation  and  wide  free- 
dom for  growth  in  different  directions.  The  complex 
needs  of  our  one  hundred  five  million  people  will  be  bet- 
ter served  when  institutions  grow  up  from  the  people 
rather  than  when  they  are  imposed  from  above,  either 
officially  by  the  government  or  unofficially  by  the  con- 
certed action  of  the  stronger  types  of  institutions  now 
holding  the  field. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  if  Germany  had  had  a 
greater  variety  in  her  institutions  of  higher  learning,  and 
particularly  in  the  matter  of  their  financial  support,  the 
Prussian  military  regime  would  never  have  been  able  to 
secure  a  strangle  hold  on  them  as  it  did,  and  through 
them  on  the  whole  German  system  of  education.  There 
were  raised  in  Germany  generation  after  generation  for 
seventy-five  years,  fathers  and  sons  inculcated  with  the  in- 
sidious doctrines  of  the  little  coterie  in  power,  who  made 
their  teachings  effective  through  the  best  organized  sys- 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  227 

tern  of  education  which  the  world  has  ever  seen,  but 
which  resulted  in  the  complete  breakdown  of  their  na- 
tional life  and  in  inconceivable  disaster  for  the  whole 
civilized  world. 

America  is  fortunate  in  having  its  higher  education 
carried  on  half  by  institutions  supported  by  the  state  and 
half  by  institutions  on  private  foundations,  and  I  believe 
it  is  equally  fortunate  that  the  undergraduate  students  of 
America  are  half  in  colleges  associated  with  universities 
and  half  in  independent  institutions  with  no  such  univer- 
sity relationships. 

The  four-year  American  college  of  liberal  arts  is  the 
oldest  institution  of  higher  education  in  this  country,  and 
until  about  fifty  years  ago  was  the  only  one.  Its  record 
constitutes  one  of  the  brightest  pages  of  our  country's 
history,  and  its  contribution  to  our  national  life  in  states- 
sanship,  in  scholarly  achievements,  and  in  moral  and 
spiritual  uplift  is  excelled  by  the  fruits  of  no  other  type 
of  institution  to  this  day.  The  need  for  these  institutions 
was  never  more  acute  than  now,  and  the  future  never 
seemed  brighter  for  those  that  can  secure  the  funds  to  do 
their  work  in  accordance  with  the  standards  which  the 
times  demand. 

These  institutions  need  and  deser^^e  the  help  which 
the  universities  can  give,  and  the  universities  in  turn  will 
profit  greatly  by  their  increased  prosperity.  It  is  some- 
times suggested  that  the  liberal  arts  work  of  the  univer- 
sities should  be  turned  over  entirely  to  these  separate  col- 
leges, leaving  the  universities  free  to  develop  their  gradu- 
ate and  professional  work.  Such  a  course, inmy  judgment, 
would  be  nothing  short  of  a  national  calamity.  Instead 
of  having  the  universities  give  up  the  liberal  arts  col- 
lege, I  should  have  them  regard  it  as  the  heart  and  center 
of  all  their  work.  Progress  will  not  be  made  by  eliminat- 
ing the  college  from  the  university  nor  by  allowing  the 


228  EDUCATION.\L  SESSION 

separate  colleges  to  die,  but  by  strengthening  the  work  of 
both,  and  bringing  them  into  relations  of  cooperation. 

The  most  important  opportunities  for  cooperation 
between  colleges  and  universities  is  found  in  the  need  for 
renewed  confidence  in  liberal  arts  ideals. 

I  shall  not  undertake,  this  afternoon,  to  discuss  the 
whole  program  and  purpose  of  the  American  college.  I 
shall  confine  myseK  to  a  brief  consideration  of  two  chief 
points, — the  length  of  the  college  course  and  the  nature  of 
the  liberal  arts  curriculum.  What  I  shall  say  in  respect 
to  both  points  will  apply  as  well  to  academic  departments 
of  universities  as  to  independent  colleges. 

During  the  past  twenty-five  years,  the  four-year  col- 
lege of  liberal  arts,  both  in  the  university  and  outside,  has 
been  called  upon  in  a  very  definite  way  to  show  reason  for 
its  continued  existence.  With  the  marvelous  develop- 
ment of  the  public  high  schools,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
equally  marvelous  development  of  technical  and  profes- 
sional schools,  on  the  other,  many  friends  of  education 
have  questioned  seriously  the  further  need  of  the  four- 
year  arts  college. 

A  great  many  suggestions  have  been  proposed  as 
solutions  of  the  problem.  One  has  been  that  the  high 
school  course  should  be  extended  to  include  the  first  two 
years  of  college,  and  that  at  the  end  of  this  six-year 
period,  the  student  should  enter  at  once  upon  his  techni- 
cal or  professional  training  in  the  university.  This  sug- 
gestion, of  course,  means  the  complete  elimination  of  the 
college  as  a  distant  institution,  and,  what  is  of  even 
greater  seriousness,  the  elimination  also  of  the  ideals  for 
which  the  college  stands.  This  suggestion  that  the  high 
schools  take  the  first  two  years  of  college  work  has  been 
repeatedly  made  during  the  past  twenty-five  years,  but 
no  extensive  movement  has  so  far  resulted  from  the  agi- 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  229 

tation.  I  should  be  sorry  to  see  the  high  schools,  as  such, 
attempt  this  work. 

In  large  centers  of  population,  where  money  is  avail- 
able for  the  separate  organization  of  a  junior  college  in 
connection  with  the  public  school  system,  there  is  every 
reason  to  encourage  the  multiplication  of  local  opportuni- 
ties for  higher  work,  and  I  believe,  too,  that  many  institu- 
tions which  carry  the  college  name  without  possessing 
resources  sufficient  to  offer  substantial  college  work, 
should  become  junior  colleges  and  limit  their  efforts  to 
the  first  two  years.  But  the  establishment  of  separately 
organized  junior  colleges,  whether  a  part  of  the  public 
school  system  or  in  separate  institutions  supported  by 
gifts,  is  a  very  different  thing  from  merely  expanding  the 
high  school  course  with  the  hope  of  covering  the  first  two 
years  of  college  work. 

Another  method  of  modifying  the  four-year  liberal 
arts  course  has  been  to  compress  its  work  into  three 
years.  Clark  College  at  Worcester,  Mass.,  is  an  example 
of  this  type  of  institution.  The  experiment  here  has  been 
tried  under  the  most  favorable  conditions  and  under  the 
leadership  of  admirably  qualified  men.  But  no  great  en- 
thusiasm has  resulted  from  the  experiment,  and  there 
seems  to  be  no  tendency  whatever  on  the  part  of  colleges 
generally  to  yield  a  particle  in  the  matter  of  the  four- 
year  requirement. 

A  third  proposed  method  of  dealing  with  the  prob- 
lem is  to  combine  three  years  of  liberal  arts  with  one  of 
professional  training,  and  grant  an  A.B.  for  the  four- 
year  combination.  The  temptations  to  this  plan  are  more 
alluring  in  colleges  associated  with  universities  than  in 
those  separately  organized,  although  there  have  been 
many  instances  of  agreements  of  this  sort  between  col- 
leges and  universities.  For  example,  a  dozen  years  ago 
the  institution  which  I  serve  had  arrangements  with  the 


230  EDUCATION.^L  SESSION 

medical  schools  of  Harvard,  Northwestern,  and  Minne- 
sota, by  which  our  men  would  leave  us  at  the  end  of  the 
junior  year,  and  after  completing  the  first  year  of  the 
medical  course  at  the  university,  would  be  given  their 
bachelor's  degree  with  us.  The  arrangement  stood  as 
an  open  invitation  to  our  men  to  leave  us  at  the  end  of 
three  years  and,  after  a  brief  and  unsatisfactory  trial, 
was  discontinued. 

A  college  cannot  accomj^lish  its  full  purpose  with  the 
average  student  in  less  time  than  four  years,  and  I  am 
persuaded  that  any  college  that  has  a  majority  of  its  stu- 
dents for  only  part  of  the  time,  cannot  do  for  the  four- 
year  men  what  a  school  with  a  majority  of  full  time  sui- 
dents  can  do.  If  I  were  asked  to  assist  a  prospective  stu- 
dent in  selecting  a  college,  I  should  strongly  advise  him 
to  inquire  how  large  a  percentage  of  its  students  a  given 
college  graduates  and,  other  things  being  equal,  I  should 
advise  him  to  go  to  the  college  that  graduates  the  largest 
percentage  of  those  who  enter. 

Such  an  institution  is  able  to  maintain  scholarly 
standards  of  a  far  higher  level  than  ungraded  colleges 
which  are  willing  to  do  the  miscellaneous  work  required 
by  irregular  students.  A  college  with  a  majority  of  its 
students  four-year  people  is  also  able  to  maintain  a  richer 
and  more  inspiring  atmosphere  than  the  other  type  of 
school;  the  incidental  phases  of  its  life  are  more  signifi- 
cant. What  I  mean  finds  illustration  in  the  difference  in 
the  English  that  one  learns  in  a  six  months  course  at  a 
business  college  and  the  use  of  his  mother  tongue  that  he 
acquires  by  years  of  residence  at  Oxford.  Merely  to  live 
at  Oxford  is  to  learn  to  speak  English  well.  G.  Stanley 
Hall  has  well  emphasized  the  importance  of  the  indirect 
educational  influences  of  a  college.  He  says,  ''The  best 
education  is  not  that  which  comes  with  effort  from  direct 
attention  and  application,  but  there  is  an  unconscious 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  231 

education,  which  is  much  more  important,  and  which  is 
carried  on  in  the  penumbral  regions  of  the  mind.  This 
environmental  education  needs  more  time. ' ' 

This  statement  from  Dr.  Hall  not  only  buttresses  the 
argument  for  the  four-year  course,  but  it  also  sounds  a 
note  of  warning  to  the  college  that  it  shall  jealously 
guard  that  intangible  something  which  we  call  its  atmos- 
phere, in  order  that  the  influences  that  affect  the  marginal 
regions  of  the  student's  mind  may  be  influences  saturated 
with  scholarly  ideals  and  earnestness  of  spirit.  There  is 
no  question  that  a  large  percentage  of  irregular  or  part- 
time  students  dilutes  the  atmosphere  and  seriously  neu- 
tralizes the  educative  forces  of  a  college. 

Furthermore,  I  think  is  may  justly  be  maintained 
that  it  is  in  the  last  two  years,  and  not  in  the  first  two, 
that  a  college  accomplishes  its  purpose  with  a  student, 
and  creates  within  him  its  distinctive  ideal.  It  is  not  in 
connection  with  freshman  mathematics,  or  beginning 
languages,  or  elementary  sciences,  that  the  college  finds 
its  real  opportunity.  The  work  of  these  first  years  is 
largely  a  preparation  for  what  the  college  has  to  offer  in 
the  years  that  follow.  It  is  only  when  the  student  begins 
to  delve  into  philosophy  and  economics  and  the  social 
sciences,  and  when  he  begins  to  understand  the  natural 
sciences  in  their  implications,  and  has  developed  a  real 
taste  for  literature  and  something  of  perspective  in  his- 
tory,— it  is  only  then  that  his  personal  philosophy  of  life 
begins  intelligently  to  take  on  final  form. 

If  the  college  of  liberal  arts,  both  in  the  university 
and  outside,  cannot  develop  citizens  of  broader  outlook 
and  deeper  sympathies  than  other  types  of  institutions, 
then  I  should  say  they  fail  of  their  chief  function  and 
there  is  little  hope  of  their  permanent  existence.  But  I 
believe  there  is  a  difference  and  I  am  convinced  that  the 
difference  is  shown  chiefly  in  those  who  have  taken  the 


232  EDUCATI0X.\L  SESSION 

full  four-year  course  and  have  become  the  children  of 
their  alma  mater,  and  not  by  those  who  have  joined  the 
college  household  temporarily. 

Any  college  in  taking  a  student  does  so  with  the  hope 
that  ultimately  he  will  come  to  represent  the  ideals  the 
college  stands  for,  and  every  genuine  college  in  the  coun- 
try' desires  to  graduate  the  great  majority  of  her  students 
and  have  them  permanently  for  her  children.  The  senti- 
ments and  loyalties  that  cluster  around  an  alumni  rela- 
tionship to  a  college  that  has  already  inspired  and  given 
one  a  start,  are  among  the  most  significant  and  satisfying 
influences  that  can  ever  possess  a  man.  They  constitute 
the  chief  assets  of  a  college  and  are  a  lasting  blessing  to 
the  graduate  himself. 

But  four  years'  time  is  not  the  only  condition  of  a 
satisfactory  college  course.  The  content  of  the  course  is 
of  equal  importance.  There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  dis- 
cussion the  past  twenty  years  as  to  what  high  schools  and 
colleges  should  teach.  There  has  been  a  feeling  that  too 
much  of  our  teaching  is  not  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the 
the  students  and  does  not  fit  them  for  their  life  work. 
The  subjects  are  not  practical,  it  is  held,  and  the  feeling 
in  many  quarters  is  strong  that  they  should  be  replaced 
by  others  more  nearly  related  to  the  demands  of  every- 
day life.  There  can  be  no  possible  objection  to  the  various 
forms  of  industrial  and  vocational  education  which  have 
been  so  splendidly  developed  in  recent  years.  Underly- 
ing any  permanent  social  structure  are  the  gi'eat  eco- 
nomic necessities  for  physical  well-being  that  must  be 
provided  if  there  is  to  be  any  society  at  all.  The  result  of 
this  unalterable  necessity  is  the  further  necessity  that  the 
vast  majority  of  any  population  must  be  employed  in  pro- 
ductive industries  and  the  trades. 

But  in  our  effort  to  make  our  training  practical,  let 
•as  not  forget  to  make  it  worth  while.    Life  is  more  than 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  233 

meat  and  the  body  than  raiment.  While  I  believe  that 
every  boy  should  be  taught  to  make  his  living  and  that 
any  education  is  a  failure  which  leaves  him  dependent  on 
others  for  support,  I  also  believe  that  at  least  a  few 
drawn  from  all  ranks  of  society  should  be  given  a  higher 
education  whose  value  cannot  be  measured  in  dollars  and 
cents,  and  which  those  who  have  it  would  never  barter 
for  silver  nor  gold. 

With  all  due  allowance  for  the  undoubted  advan- 
tages that  have  been  introduced  by  recent  changes  in  our 
courses,  I  cannot  help  admiring  the  curriculum  of  the 
older  colleges.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  work  they 
undertook  to  do  in  training  a  few  men  to  be  leaders  in 
letters,  in  statesmanship,  and  in  the  professions,  the  older 
colleges  were  a  splendid  success.  Their  course  was  not 
rich  in  content,  nor  was  it  calculated  to  make  the  student 
familiar  with  the  learning  of  the  world,  but  it  did  put 
him  in  possession  of  himself  and  it  did  train  him  to  think 
and  to  judge  and  to  rely  on  his  own  judgment.  It  con- 
sisted of  a  few  subjects  chosen  from  the  whole  realm  of 
knowledge,  selected  not  for  their  own  sake,  but  for  their 
value  in  the  training  of  men.  These  new  subjects  were 
well  organized  and  well  applied,  and  the  boy  got  the  bene- 
fit of  what  there  was. 

What  they  did  they  did  well  and  it  was  performance 
rather  than  opportunity  that  constituted  the  distinguish- 
ing mark  of  the  early  colleges,  as  contrasted  with  the 
emphasis  upon  opportunity  and  so  little  upon  per- 
formance, so  characteristic  of  the  colleges  and  universi- 
ties of  our  day.  The  old  course  was  simple,  compact,  ef- 
fective. What  it  lacked  in  breadth  it  more  than  made  up 
in  intensity,  and  as  an  instrument  of  intellectual  and 
moral  training  it  has  never  yet  been  excelled. 

I  do  not  advocate  a  return  to  the  rigid  course  of  the 
older  colleges,  but  I  do  believe    that    the    ideals    they 


234  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

cherished  are  fundamental  ideals,  and  that  the  qualities 
they  developed  are  permanent  possessions  of  educated 
men  everywhere. 

The  basis  of  such  a  course  is  the  languages,  and  it 
would  seem  that  every  student  should  have  considerable 
knowledge  of  at  least  two, — one  ancient  and  one  modern. 
The  method  of  acquiring  this  knowledge  gives  the  stu- 
dent invaluable  mental  discipline,  and  there  is  no  surer 
way  of  developing  insight  and  appreciation  of  any  civil- 
ization than  by  learning  its  language. 

The  second  great  group  of  liberal  arts  subjects 
comprises  the  philosophical  and  social  disciplines.  These 
attempt  to  give  the  student  some  understanding  of  the 
relations  that  exist  among  persons;  the  social  sciences, 
the  persons  comprising  human  society;  and  the  philo- 
sophical sciences,  the  personality  of  the  universe  with  all 
that  that  pregnant  phrase  implies.  This  should  include 
some  general  knowledge  of  the  conclusions  of  the  out- 
standing thinkers  of  our  race  on  these  great  themes  and 
some  training  also  of  the  student  for  fresh  thought  on  his 
own  part. 

The  third  group  presents  the  facts  of  nature  and  at- 
tempts to  give  man  practical  instruction  as  to  how  he 
should  behave  in  the  presence  of  these  facts,  so  that 
nature  may  help  and  not  hinder  him  in  his  progress. 

These  three  aspects  of  a  liberal  arts  curriculum  are 
about  equally  important,  and  the  disposition  to  allow  the 
student  to  specialize  in  one  to  the  neglect  of  either  or  both 
of  the  others,  such  as  the  open  elective  system  permits, 
has  proved  unwise  and  even  its  extreme  advocates  have 
given  it  up;  while  the  disposition  to  substitute  pro- 
fessional or  technical  subjects  in  place  of  these  liberaliz- 
ing disciplines  has  defeated  the  purpose  of  liberal  arts 
and  has  turned  out  specialists  rather  than  educated  men. 

The  aim  of  a  college  is  just  as  definite  as  that  of  any 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  235 

professional  school.  That  aim  is  to  develop  the  student 
with  respect  to  all  his  capacities  into  a  mature,  symmetri- 
cal and  well-balanced  person,  in  full  possession  of  all  his 
powers,  physical,  social,  mental,  spiritual,  with  an  intel- 
ligent understanding  of  the  past  and  a  sympathetic  in- 
sight into  the  needs  and  problems  of  the  present.  I  would 
use  the  word  culture  to  define  what  I  mean,  if  that  term 
were  not  so  much  misused  that  many  people  with  red 
blood  in  their  veins  have  come  to  feel  a  repugnance  for  it. 
I  am  not  advocating  that  pseudo-culture  which  is  too  re- 
fined to  concern  itself  with  the  things  of  real  life,  and  too 
haughty  and  too  supercilious  to  keep  in  touch  and  in 
sympathy  with  common  men.  A  liberal  arts  training 
should  broaden  a  man's  sympathies  and  deepen  his  pur- 
pose to  serve  the  common  good.  It  should  create  in  him 
a  disposition  to  face  facts  squarely  whatever  they  may  be, 
and  the  ability  properly  to  appreciate  and  evaluate  them 
when  found. 

It  should  enable  him  to  recognize  and  to  test  his  own 
prejudices;  it  should  keep  him  open-minded  and  tolerant 
in  his  attitude  toward  others,  and  at  the  same  time  enable 
him  to  anchor  himself  to  the  truth  because  he  is  able  to 
detect  its  outlines  and  trace  its  leadings.  He  will  be  able 
to  live  worthily  in  the  present  because  he  understands  the 
past.  He  will  be  in  possession  of  convictions  based  on  the 
experience  of  the  ages,  and  not  be  unsettled  and  blown 
about  by  every  Utopian  wind  stirred  up  by  those  who 
would  cure  the  world 's  ills  in  a  day. 

At  a  time  like  this,  when  there  is  so  much  uncertainty 
in  public  life,  when  social  theory  is  in  a  flux,  and  business 
methods  are  approved  and  denounced  alternately  at  every 
sitting  of  Congress,  when  morals  themselves  are  mobile, 
and  religious  convictions  unsettled, — at  such  a  time  what 
we  need  most  of  all  is  men  of  leadership,  wise,  sane,  well- 
balanced  statesmen  in  every  department  of  life,  men  who 


236  EDUCATIOX.\L  SESSION 

shall  be  able  to  steady  and  to  reassure,  and  to  lead  un- 
failingly to  higher  things. 

I  do  not  maintain  that  the  training  of  these  leaders 
is  the  exclusive  work  of  the  college  but  I  do  believe  that 
it  is  its  most  important  work,  and  that  our  colleges  will 
fail  in  doing  for  society  to-day  what  their  prototypes  did 
for  our  fathers  of  old,  if  they  fail  in  this  supremely  im- 
portant function  of  training  a  few  men  who  shall  be,  to 
their  fellows,  trustworthy  guides  and  interpreters  of  the 
finer  and  higher  meaning  of  life.  As  our  forefathers  in 
their  poverty  needed  the  college  to  save  them  from  the 
grossness  of  the  material,  and  to  prevent  their  lives  from 
becoming  sordid  and  crude,  as  they  struggled  after  its 
barest  necessities,  so  does  this  age  in  its  wealth  need  men 
to  direct  its  thoughts  to  higher  things,  in  order  that  it 
may  be  saved  from  the  sordidness  of  luxury  and  absorp- 
tion in  the  things  of  sense,  which  is  at  once  the  tempta- 
tion and  the  testing  which  wealth  brings. 

The  colleges  to-day  will  fail  utterly  of  their  highest 
opportunity  if  they  cease  to  inspire  at  least  some  of  their 
students  with  a  love  of  the  beautiful  for  its  own  sake, 
some  with  an  enthusiasm  for  truth,  some  with  a  passion 
for  righteousness,  worthy  leaders  of  their  fellows — poets 
and  philosophers,  and  prophets  and  seers — men  who 
shall  feel  and  inspire  others  to  feel  the  spiritual  side  of 
things,  and  whose  hearts  are  on  fire  with  the  glory  of  the 
divine  in  life. 

How  can  our  colleges  and  universities,  working  to- 
gether, help  each  other  in  sending  out  into  society  the 
needed  number  of  men  ? 

First  of  all  there  must  be  a  sense  of  fellowship  in  a 
common  task.  Colleges  and  universities  must  no  longer 
regard  each  other  as  competitors,  and  their  relations 
should  have  in  them  nothing  of  jealousy  or  suspicion  or 
fear.  If  there  can  be  developed  a  sense  of  common  respon- 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  237 

sibility  for  the  higher  life  of  the  state  and  if  there  can 
be  brought  about  an  understanding  of  each  others'  prob- 
lems and  limitations,  there  is  hope  that  such  sentiments 
will  find  expression  in  practical  forms  of  cooperation 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  individual  institutions. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  suggest  how  certain  given  situa- 
tions could  be  improved.  Take,  for  example,  a  typical 
mid-western  state  with  a  great  state  university  and  a 
dozen  separate  colleges,  most  of  them  affiliated  with  re- 
ligious denominations.  I  cannot  see  why  the  president  of 
such  a  university  could  not  take  the  presidents  of  the  col- 
leges into  his  counsels  and  regard  them  as  a  sort  of  un- 
official cabinet.  These  men  are  all  interested  in  the  great 
institution  which  the  state  supports,  and  they  are  all  men 
who  are  trusted  by  important  groups  of  citizens  and 
would  bring  to  the  university  the  fruits  of  their  ex- 
perience in  smaller  fields.  Such  a  body  of  men,  called  to- 
gether two  or  three  times  a  year,  should  prove  wise  coun- 
sellors in  matters  of  university  policy,  and  I  cannot  help 
thinking  that  in  the  long  run  it  would  create  increased 
public  sentiment  in  favor  of  additional  appropriations 
for  liberal  arts. 

But  whether  or  not  such  an  arrangement  would  be  of 
much  value  to  the  university,  there  is  no  question  it 
would  mean  much  to  the  colleges.  There  would  be  im- 
mense encouragement  merely  in  the  fact  of  being  brought 
into  direct  personal  touch  with  university  problems.  But 
there  could  easily  be  more  than  that. 

The  university  might  list  in  its  catalogue  the  names 
of  the  colleges  and  the  advantages  to  be  found  in  them, 
and  it  could  well  afford  to  encourage  many  students  to 
take  their  undergraduate  work  in  the  separate  institu- 
tions. Most  colleges  secure  their  students  only  by  per- 
sistent publicity  efforts  in  one  form  or  other,  and  a  little 
cooperation  at  this  point  from  the  university  would  be  of 


238  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

immense  help.  This  help  would  be  reciprocated  at  the 
end  of  four  years  and  a  university  in  such  relations  with 
the  colleges  of  its  territory  would  naturally  draw  the 
great  bulk  of  the  graduates  of  these  institutions  into  its 
own  graduate  and  professional  schools.  I  believe,  too, 
that  the  university  might  well  cultivate  intercollegiate 
relations  of  all  sorts, — in  athletics,  in  debate,  in  public 
speaking, — with  the  colleges  of  the  state,  and  not  have 
these  relationships  limited  only  to  other  universities  out- 
side of  the  state. 

Much  more  could  be  done  by  frank  publicity  all 
around  than  is  now  accomplished,  for  example  in  the 
matter  of  annual  financial  reports.  It  is  true  that  the 
financial  facts  are  available  in  connection  with  state  uni- 
versities, but  it  is  also  true  that  they  are  not  usually  in 
a  form  that  enables  one  to  tell  with  certainty  how  much 
was  spent  strictly  for  the  arts  college,  and  are,  therefore, 
not  readily  comparable  with  similar  reports  made  by  the 
colleges.  If  in  some  way,  without  antagonizing  the  col- 
leges, the  university  could  persuade  them  to  publish  each 
year  a  financial  account  of  their  situation  and  bring  this 
into  comparison  with  the  standards  set  by  the  university, 
I  believe  it  would  be  a  powerful  factor  in  developing  a 
better  situation. 

May  I  suggest  also  that  the  faculties  of  the  colleges 
in  a  given  state  could  be  brought  into  much  closer  re- 
lations with  the  university  than  is  now  done  ?  I  have  no 
doubt  that,  at  the  present  time,  the  college  men  are  wel- 
come to  the  use  of  the  library  and  other  facilities  of  the 
nniversity,  but  their  actual  use  could  be  greatly  increased 
by  the  establishment  of  the  more  definite  relationships 
which  I  have  in  mind. 

Men  teaching  the  same  subjects  in  the  university  and 
in  the  colleges  could  be  brought  closer  together  by  de- 
partmental meetings  which  would  include  the  college 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  239 

men,  and  in  many  instances  investigations  could  be 
planned  in  which  the  men  from  the  colleges  would  have 
a  part. 

Many  university  men  would  doubtless  welcome 
teachers  from  the  colleges  as  associate  members  of  some 
of  the  faculty  social  clubs,  giving  them  in  this  respect 
privileges  similar  to  those  given  to  teachers  in  the  under- 
graduate departments  of  the  university. 

In  these  and  many  other  ways  the  colleges  of  a  state 
could  be  brought  into  cooperative  relations  with  the  uni- 
versity and  many  advantages  of  the  Canadian  sytsem  of 
affiliated  denominational  colleges  could  be  secured,  even 
thougli  the  colleges  are  not  on  the  university  campus. 

Such  relations  in  a  more  limited  form  could  also  be 
established  with  universities  in  other  parts  of  the  countr>\ 
The  arrangement  which  Harvard  has  established  with  a 
group  of  six  western  colleges,  and  which  has  now  been 
in  operation  for  nearly  a  dozen  years,  is  the  first  step  of 
what  could  become  a  great  national  movement  of  bring- 
ing the  colleges  and  universities  together.  I  do  not  see 
why  the  great  universities  on  private  foundations  could 
not  each  select  a  group  of  colleges  in  which  it  would  be- 
come especially  interested  and  toward  which  it  would  feel 
a  sense  of  responsibility  similar  to  that  carried  by  the 
religious  denominations. 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  universities  would 
assume  any  direct  financial  responsibility  for  these  col- 
leges, but  the  fact  of  the  relationship  would  tend  to  create 
confidence  in  the  institution  on  the  part  of  its  own  consti- 
tuency and  in  the  long  run  it  would  doubtless  result  in  in- 
creased interest  and  gifts.  The  relationship  with  Har- 
vard which  these  six  western  colleges  have  enjoyed,  is 
highly  prized  by  every  one  of  them,  and,  in  addition  to 
the    intellectual    stimulus    and    professional    fellowship 


240  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

which  the  visiting  professors  have  brought,  the  arrange- 
ment has  added  much  to  the  regard  in  which  the  colleges 
are  held  by  their  own  friends,  because  Harvard  has 
thought  it  worth  while  to  be  interested  in  them. 

America  needs  the  liberal  arts  college,  and  in  the  im- 
provement of  undergraduate  work,  both  in  colleges  con- 
nected with  universities  and  in  those  separately  organiz- 
ed, lies  the  greatest  hope  for  educational  advancement. 


CO-OPERATION  WITH  THE  VITAL  ACTIVITIES  OF 

LIFE 

HONORABLE    FREDERICK    P.    FISH,    A.B. 

Trustee,  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology 


From  the  beginning  all  progress  has  been  to  a  large 
extent  based  upon  close  cooperation  between  the  various 
forms  of  human  activity.  Under  the  simpler  conditions 
that  prevailed  until  recently,  such  cooperation  was  in 
great  part  unconscious  and  automatic.  Each  individual 
in  the  community,  while  on  the  surface  largely  actuated 
by  purely  selfish  motives,  instinctively  recognized  that 
prosperity  and  well-being  could  only  be  attained  by  the 
proper  correlation  of  his  effort  and  that  of  the  class  or 
group  to  which  he  belonged  with  the  efforts  of  those  who 
were  dealing  with  other  phases  of  the  world's  work.  Con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  he  acted  on  that  assumption. 
By  such  cooperation  and  coordination,  our  methods  of 
production  and  distribution  have  been  established  and 
our  governmental  and  community  relations  developed. 
Our  social  organization  with  its  positive  laws,  its  customs 
and  habits  which  are  even  more  controlling  than  positive 
laws,  and  its  sense  of  right  and  of  responsibility  by  which 
the  conduct  of  men  has  been  so  largely  determined,  is  an 
outgrowth  of  the  same  tradition. 

It  has  always  been  recognized  that  education  should 
be  coordinated  with  and  correlated  to  the  other  activities 
of  life.  Its  aims  has  been  to  fit  men,  whatever  may  be 
their  place  in  the  community,  to  play  a  satisfactory  part 
in  life  and  to  be  of  service  to  themselves  and  to  society. 

For  countless  generations  there  was  practically  no 
education  except  that  which  came  from  participation  in 


242  EDUCATIOX-\L  SESSION 

active  affairs  and  from  contact  with  those  who  by  ex- 
perience had  acquired  such  training  as  curi'ent  conditions 
permitted.  Even  to-day  in  a  large  part  of  the  world  there 
is  no  formal  education. 

Most  men  who  have  lived  ujDon  the  earth  have  been 
taught  only  by  contact,  from  childhood,  with  the  environ- 
ment in  which  they  lived  and  by  the  example  and  precept 
of  their  elders  and  associates  whose  activities  and  mode 
of  life  they  constantly  observed  and  shared. 

Formal  education,  when  it  came,  was  recognized  as 
supplemental  to  the  ordinary  forms  of  training  that  were 
open  to  everyone.  For  example,  the  most  intelligent  and 
ambitious  man  might  not  have  the  opportunity  to  learn 
to  read  and  write  unless  there  was  provided  some  syste- 
matic plan  by  which  he  might  be  taught  to  do  so.  "When 
the  value  of  reading  and  writing  was  recognized,  methods 
were  devised  liy  which  men  could  be  educated  in  those 
subjects. 

As  the  world  grew  older  it  became  more  and  more 
apparent  that  there  was  a  very  large  and  important  field 
for  such  supplemental  education,  and  systematic  plans 
were  originated  by  which  those  subjects  of  human  know- 
ledge which  were  deemed  important,  in  view  of  the  stand- 
ards of  the  time,  but  which  could  not  be  acquired  mere- 
ly by  contact  with  the  environment,  should  be  definitely 
taught  to  those  in  a  position  to  receive  such  training. 

But  up  to  a  comparatively  recent  time  such  educa- 
tion was  only  for  the  few.  It  was  not  recognized  that  the 
vast  majority,  whose  work  was  confined  to  small  affairs, 
needed  any  other  education  than  that  which  came  to  them 
from  their  surroundings. 

The  methods  of  formal  education  have  been  to  a 
large  extent  only  indirectly  correlated  with  the  practical 
affairs  of  life,  as  illustrated  by  the  prominence  of  poetry, 
music,  and  dancing  among  the  Greeks,  of  the  scholastic 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  243 

philosophy  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and,'  of  the  ancient  lan- 
guages and  theology  in  the  schools  of  comparatively 
modern  times.  But  the  teaching  even  of  these  subjects, 
and  education  in  general,  were  consciously  aimed  at  the 
development  of  intelligence  and  at  the  promotion  of 
thought,  imagination  and  knowledge,  for  the  benefit  of 
the  individual  and  of  the  community.  The  underlying 
principle  was  undoubtedly  sound  as  far  as  it  went  and 
was  based  uopn  a  real  desire  for  the  cooperation  of  edu- 
cation with  practical  affairs.  The  thought  in  Greece  as 
well  as  in  Medieval  and  comparatively  modern  univer- 
sities was  that  if  men  were  trained  in  the  subjects  taught 
in  the  schools,  their  minds  and  characters  would  be  de- 
veloped, they  would  get  more  satisfaction  out  of  life  and 
be  better  qualified  to  serve  their  fellow  men  and  to  con- 
tribute to  sound  social  and  economic  development.  It 
was  believed,  as  was  definitely  stated  by  John  Locke,  that 
men  who  had  had  such  training  would  be  so  improved  in 
intelligence  and  capacity  that  it  would  be  relativley  easy 
for  them  to  fit  into  affairs,  where  they  would  be  sure  to  ac- 
complish more  than  would  have  been  the  case  if  they  had 
not  had  such  training. 

Much  later  it  was  gradually  recognized  that  all  men 
needed  special  training,  such  as  can  be  given  only  in 
schools.  They  should  at  least  be  taught  reading,  writing 
and  arithmetic  as  tools  essential  even  to  the  narrowest  of 
vocations  or  the  most  humble  position  in  life.  The  his- 
tory of  the  progress  of  this  idea,  which  has  prevailed  in 
all  civilized  communities,  illustrates  the  general  accept- 
ance and  publication  of  the  principle  that  education  and 
the  institutions  through  which  education  is  applied  and 
developed,  should  cooperate  and  be  coordinated  with  the 
practical  affairs  of  life. 

Confining  our  attention  to  this  country,  we  cannot 
doubt  that  the  educational  practices  of  former  times, 


244  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

simple,  narrow  in  scope,  and  relatively  unscientific  as 
they  may  have  been  as  compared  with  the  more  standard- 
ized methods  of  to-day,  were  effective  and  of  great 
practical  utility.  It  may  be  doubted  if  our  modern 
methods  have  been  productive  of  substantially  broader 
or  better  scholarship  in  the  higher  grades,  or  have  result- 
ed in  greater  intelligence  or  greater  capacity  in  the  com- 
munity as  a  whole  or  in  any  class  of  the  community,  to 
deal  with  the  current  problems  of  existence,  which  were, 
in  the  old  days  in  many  respects,  so  unlike  our  own. 

"When  we  consider  the  statesmen,  lawyers,  theolo- 
gians, literary  men  and  business  men  of  former  genera- 
tions, there  seems  but  little  ground  for  assuming  that 
they  were  less  intelligent  or  less  capable  than  men  of  to- 
day whose  activities  are  the  same  in  kind.  Even  those 
who  labored  with  their  hands  and  the  small  tradesmen 
clearly  had  sufficient  training  adequately  to  play  their 
part  in  their  relatively  narrow  field.  All  seem  to  have 
contributed  much  to  life  and  to  have  gotten  much  out  of 
it.  It  may  even  be  true  that  there  is  to-day  not  much  more 
real  scholarship  in  the  community  at  large  than  was  the 
case  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  there  seems  to  be  no  great 
amount  of  evidence  that  at  that  time  the  average  citizen 
was  not  as  well  fitted,  so  far  as  education  was  concerned, 
for  the  life  he  had  to  lead  (not,  of  course,  for  life  in  our 
time)  as  are  the  men  of  the  twentieth  century  for  the  lives 
which  they  have  to  lead. 

However  that  may  be,  the  far-reaching  changes  in 
environment  and  social  and  economic  conditions  that,  as 
we  all  realize,  have  come  during  the  last  fifty  years, 
necessarily  required  a  change  in  the  methods  of  education 
that  they  might  be  made  to  fit  the  new  situation.  If 
those  formerly  in  vogue  qualified  the  men  of  two  or  three 
generations  ago  for  satisfactory  effort  and  the  pursuit  of 
hajDpiness  under  the  conditions  which  then  existed,  they 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  245 

must  have  required  revision  before  the  educational  pro- 
gram could  meet  the  needs  of  a  radically  new  and  much 
more  complex  civilization. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  call  attention,  as  an  illustra- 
tion, to  the  vastly  greater  number  for  the  teaching  of 
whom  the  schools  of  all  grades  have  had  to  be  adapted. 
Not  only  are  all  now  obliged  to  attend  school  but  they 
must  attend  up  to  a  more  advanced  age.  The  aggregate 
population  has  greatly  increased  while  the  people  have 
crowded  into  the  cities,  bringing  together  masses  of  chil- 
dren, all  of  whom  have  to  be  educated.  The  number  of 
students  in  the  higher  institutions  of  learning  fifty  years 
ago  was  relatively  so  small  that  it  was  not  difficult  to 
maintain  the  personal  relations  between  instructor  and 
student  which  in  many  cases  made  up  for  what  may  seem 
to  us  now  defective  programs  or  unscientific  methods. 

This  difficulty  of  increased  numbers  has  been  met,  as 
far  as  possible,  by  what  we  call  ''organization,"  bring- 
ing with  it  some  disadvantages  because  of  its  inflexibility 
and  machine-like  character,  by  reason  of  which  it  is  not 
perfectly  adapted  to  bring  out  the  best  there  is  in  a  body 
of  students,  no  two  of  whom  are  alike  and  each  of  whom 
would  profit  more  if  greater  personal  attention  could  be 
given  to  his  individual  personality. 

But  perhaps  one  of  the  most  far-reaching  of  the  many 
changes,  necessitating  the  revision  of  educational  meth- 
ods, that  have  come  during  the  past  fifty  years,  resides 
in  the  fact  that  under  the  present  conditions  of  our 
society,  our  established  schools  are  called  upon  to  do  far 
more  towards  the  education  which  our  youth  are  to  re- 
ceive than  was  formerly  the  case. 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  fact  that  in  its  theory 
and  inception  our  school  system  was  essentially  supple- 
mental to  the  general  all  around  and  practically  uncon- 
scious   education    acquired  by  all  from  their  environ- 


246  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

ment  and  from  contact  with  those  with  Avhom  they  were 
associated,  the  results  of  whose  experience  were  absorbed 
and  whose  example  was  followed. 

Under  modern  conditions  the  opportunities  for  ac- 
quiring education  in  this  way  are  substantially  reduced 
and  schools  of  all  grades  are  expected  to  extend  their 
work    accordingly. 

It  is  worth  while  to  consider  for  a  moment  the  extent 
and  character  of  this  non-scholastic  education  and  its 
possibilities. 

It  is,  of  course,  absurd  to  assume  that  the  entire  edu- 
cation of  any  man  or  woman  is  obtained  at  school  or  col- 
lege. The  education  of  each  of  us  begins  with  his  first 
conscious  apprehension  of  the  environment  in  which  he 
lives,  soon  followed  by  an  effort  to  enlarge  his  knowledge 
of  that  environment,  and  continues  to  the  day  of  his 
death. 

The  greater  part  of  the  process  is  one  of  self -educa- 
tion, and  the  difference  in  quality,  character  and  attain- 
ment between  one  individual  and  another  largely  results 
from  the  difference  in  capacity  for  self-education.  It 
seems  to  me  a  weakness  in  our  schools  that  this  truth  is 
not  more  clearly  recognized  and  a  more  definite  effort 
made  to  impress  on  those  who  are  taught,  the  vital  im- 
portance of  constant  effort,  independent  of  any  set  in- 
struction, to  find  out  for  themselves  by  obsen-ation 
judgment  and  reasoning  the  realities  of  nature  and  of 
life  and  the  facts  which  must  be  accurately  known  before 
truth  can  be  determined  and  self-deception  avoided. 

The  family  circle  should  be,  and  once  was,  one  of  the 
greatest  of  all  educational  forces.  The  fundamental 
principles  of  right  living  and  of  service,  efficiency  and  an 
instinctive  aspiration  to  be  useful  and  to  conform  to 
social  requirements,  which  are  essential  to  true  success  in 
life,  are  relatively  simple.     They  are  recognized  uncon- 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  247 

sciously  even  by  those  who  do  not  practice  them.  They 
should  be  instilled  into  the  children  by  practice  and  pre- 
cept of  the  father,  and  particularly  of  the  mother,  and 
should  be  developed  by  the  relations  of  the  children  to 
each  other  and  to  their  parents  and  associates. 

Under  the  former  and  simpler  conditions  of  life  this 
type  of  family  education  undoubtedly  prevailed,  in  most 
classes  in  the  community,  to  a  far  greater  extent  than  at 
the  present  time.  Extravagant  state  paternalism  and  the 
undue  emphasis  that  has  been  placed  upon  book  learning, 
as  distinguished  from  other  forms  of  education,  to- 
gether with  the  excitement  and  struggle  of  modem  life, 
which  have  to  some  extent  turned  the  attention  of  the 
fathers  and  mothers  away  from  what  formerly  seemed 
their  chief  obligation,  namely,  to  look  after  the  sound 
development  of  their  children,  have  led  to  a  condition 
where  a  large  part  of  the  community  feels  that  the  state 
must  take  the  responsibility  even  of  that  portion  of  the 
child 's  education  which  was,  up  to  a  recent  time,  instinc- 
tively assumed  by  the  family.  This  is  certainly  the  case 
with  many  of  our  foreign  born  populatiton,  where  the 
parents  (some  of  whom  never  even  learn  our  language) 
lose  control  of  their  children  largely  because  the  latter, 
educated  in  the  public  schools,  can  talk  English  and  par- 
ticipate in  the  affairs  of  the  environment  in  which  they 
live  in  a  way  impossible  for  the  parents.  Under  such  con- 
ditions the  respect  of  children  for  their  father  and  mother 
and  their  reliance  upon  them  for  guidance,  is  apt  to 
disappear,  with  the  loss  of  sound  parental  influence.  This 
loss  cannot  be  made  up  by  any  institution,  but  the  burden 
of  the  attempt  to  compensate  for  it  is  definitely  imposed 
upon  the  schools. 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  also,  that  the  churches  former- 
ly exercised  a  much  more  important  influence  than  they 


248  EDUCATIOX.\L  SESSION 

do  at  the  present  time  and  the  schools  are  expected  large- 
ly to  take  their  place  as  an  educational  force. 

"While  what  I  have  just  said  may  seem  to  apply  to 
the  schools  of  lower  grades  rather  than  to  the  colleges, 
the  work  of  the  colleges  and  their  effectiveness  is  clearly 
influenced  and  to  some  extent  controlled  by  the  assump- 
tion of  new  burdens  by  the  schools  as  a  whole. 

There  is  another  direction  in  which  the  conditions  of 
modern  life  have  operated  to  deprive  those  who  must  be 
educated,  of  a  part  at  least  of  the  out-of-school  training 
which  was  formerly  open  to  them,  and  which  was  and  is 
of  the  greatest  possible  value,  thus  imposing  a  further 
burden  ujoon  the  schools,  and  in  this  case  to  as  great  an 
extent  upon  the  higher  institutions  of  learning  as  upon 
those  of  lower  grade. 

Under  the  conditions  which  prevailed  up  to  within  a 
generation  or  two,  the  greater  part  of  the  children  and 
youth  were  continually  in  touch  with  the  practical  side 
of  every-day  life  far  more  than  at  the  present  time.  Ex- 
cept in  rare  cases,  they  themselves,  from  very  early  age, 
participated  in  all  the  forms  of  activity  which  were 
carried  on  around  them.  They  knew  what  work  was  and 
the  spirit  in  which  it  should  be  approached.  Not  only 
did  those  who  lived  in  the  comitry,  which  included  far 
the  larger  portion  of  them,  have  the  many  advantages  of 
freedom  from  the  evils  of  city  life,  but  they  acquired 
automatically  and  instinctively,  as  it  were,  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  all  the  surrounding  phases  of  human 
activity  and  effort,  so  that  they  were  from  day  to  day  un- 
consciously fitting  themselves  for  the  environment  in 
which  they  were  to  live  and  for  service  in  that  environ- 
ment. Every  moment  they  were  educating  themselves 
for  their  life's  career.  Even  those  whose  homes  were  in 
the  cities,  where  the  social  organization  was  simple  as 
compared  with  that  of  to-day,  themselves  worked  and 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  249 

were  familiar  with  the  crafts,  the  trades  and  the  general 
activities  of  their  surroundings  and  with  the  way  in 
which  people  lived  and  thought,  to  a  much  greater  extent 
than  is  possible  at  the  present  time. 

In  both  city  and  country,  people  generally,  old  and 
young,  were  closer  together.  Those  who  were  of  the  pro- 
fessional class  and  the  more  prosperous  were  in  actual 
and  close  touch  with  the  small  tradesman,  the  mechanic 
and  craftsman  and  the  laboring  man  to  an  extent  that  is 
now  impossible.  Each  group  in  the  community  inevita- 
bly obtained  a  better  undertanding  of  the  attitude,  of  the 
aspirations,  of  the  character  and  of  the  life  of  the  men  of 
the  other  groups.  In  practical  matters  there  was  less 
specialization  and  more  general  knowledge  and  informa- 
tion on  the  part  of  all  than  is  the  case  to-day.  This  gave 
not  only  the  young  but  those  of  mature  years  a  better 
understanding  of  current  conditions  and  of  the  ideas  and 
motives  of  men,  and  a  broader  and  more  intelligent  out- 
look on  human  nature  as  well  as  on  current  affairs.  The 
so-called  different  classes  in  the  community  were  less 
self-centered.  Men  had  a  real  knowledge  of  their  neigh- 
bors and  their  characters  and  aspirations,  and  therefore 
they  had  an  inevitable  sjnnpathy  with  the  thoughts  and 
ideas  of  classes  other  than  their  own.  There  was  less 
temptation  to  establish  strata  of  class  consciousness  and 
less  occasion  for  thought  in  that  direction.  Under  modern 
conditions  it  is  apparent  that  society  is  not  so  homo- 
geneous as  it  was  a  few  generations  ago  and  that  to  a  far 
greater  extent  than  formerly,  there  is  the  tendency  and 
the  inclination  for  the  members  of  each  group  to  think 
and  act  on  narrow  lines  of  so-called  class  interest  rather 
than  broadly  for  the  general  good. 

A  most  unfortunate  result  of  what  seems  to  me  this 
obvious  degradation  of  the  social  instinct  has  been  that 
each  group  in  the  community,  in  its  ignorance  of  the  real 


250  EDUCATION.\L  SESSION 

characteristics  and  the  real  personality  of  those  in  the 
other  groups,  has  become  inclined  to  concentrate  atten- 
tion on,  the  faults  and  social  errors  of  those  outside  of 
its  own  narrow  circle  and  to  ignore  the  obvious  truth 
that  most  of  the  men  and  women  of  the  community,  what- 
ever may  be  their  station  or  the  character  of  their  activi- 
ties, are  largely  of  the  same  view  as  to  underlying 
principles  and  social  obligations,  and  that  it  is  because 
they  are  misunderstood  that  members  of  one  class  are 
distrusted  and  regarded  in  a  hostile  spirit  by  those  of 
other  classes. 

If  this  condition  of  affairs  exists,  as  I  believe  to  be 
the  case,  it  is  most  unfortunate  from  one  point  of  view. 
Politically,  such  conditions  develop  distrust  of  govern- 
ment and  its  institutions,  and  may  lead,  as  in  the  case  of 
Eussia,  to  the  destruction  of  the  bases  of  society  and 
civilization.  Socially,  they  result  in  hostile  and  unfriend- 
ly attitudes  on  the  part  of  some  sections  of  the  people 
towards  others,  attitudes  that  have  little  justification  and 
yet  lead  to  that  discontent  and  resentment  which  are 
fatal  to  cordial  relationships  throughout  the  community. 
Economically,  such  a  condition  of  misunderstanding  is 
definitely  a  source  of  inefficiency  that  is  much  to  be  de- 
plored. The  practical  work  of  the  world  requires  a  clas- 
sification of  workers  in  which  each  man  devotes  his 
energies,  intellectual  or  physical,  to  work  for  which  he 
is  adapted ;  but  it  is  a  most  serious  detriment  to  any  one, 
even  if  he  is  and  intends  to  be  loyal  and  zealous  in  his 
service,  if  he  does  not  recognize  the  part  that  others  play 
in  bringing  about  the  common  result  and  does  not  ap- 
preciate the  true  relations  of  others,  without  whose  co- 
operation his  own  work  would  be  definitely  ineffective  in 
the  affairs  of  life. 

A  social  condition  in  which  each  individual  is  so  self- 
centered  as  to  think  and  act  only  in  terms  of  his  own  self- 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  251 

ish  interest,  or  that  of  a  class  to  which  he  regards  him- 
self as  belonging,  is  not  only  fatal  to  sound  government, 
particularly  in  a  democracy,  but  is  equally  fatal  to  social 
well-being  and  to  economic  efficiency.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  whatever  that  such  an  unfortunate  attitude  is 
based  only  upon  ignorance  and  a  failure  to  understand 
the  realties  of  life. 

If,  as  I  believe,  modern  conditions  are  such  as  to 
bring  about  this  unfortunate  state  of  affairs,  and  it  is  true 
that  those  who  are  growing  up  to  take  their  place  in  the 
world  have  not  the  advantage  of  the  old-fashioned  family 
education  and  the  intimate  contact  with  men  and  the 
work  of  men  which  formerly  did  so  much  to  fit  them  for 
their  active  career,  it  must  be  the  fundamental  duty  of 
those  who  are  responsible  for  and  are  shaping  educational 
methods  to  see  that  as  far  as  possible  the  schools,  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest  in  grade,  respond  to  this  new 
need.  The  other  work  of  the  schools  must  be  supple- 
mented to  the  utmost  with  the  definite  effort  to  give  to 
the  pupils  as  much  general  knowledge  as  possible  of  prac- 
tical affairs  as  they  exist,  and  a  sound  understanding  of 
the  true  relations  which  the  citizens  of  a  great  democracy, 
each  working  in  his  own  special  direction,  should  have  to 
each  other.  Independent  thought  and  aspiration  in  the 
right  direction  should  be  stimulated.  The  necessity  of 
self -education  outside  of  the  specific  school  organization 
should  be  accentuated.  The  student  should  never  be 
allowed  to  forget  that  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that 
he  should  always  have  his  eyes  open  to  what  is  going  on 
about  him  and  should  think  and  reason  for  himself  about 
the  facts  and  conditions  which  he  observes.  He  should 
be  instructed  that  from  his  formal  schooling  he  can  get 
only  a  certain  part  of  that  education  which  he  needs  to 
enable  him  to  succeed  and  be  of  service  in  after  life.  It 
may  be  that  definite  attention  could  be  given  to  such 


252  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

matters  as  part  of  the  school  program,  but  it  is  quite 
probable  that  this  would  not  be  necessary.  If  properly 
trained  teachers  were  available,  they  could  contribute  a 
very  large  amount  of  such  instruction  indirectly  and  as 
an  incident  to  the  rest  of  the  school  work. 

We  need  teachers  who  are  better  trained  for  their 
work,  and  part  of  their  training  might  as  well  be  such  as 
to  qualify  them,  through  their  teaching,  to  stimulate  their 
pupils  to  obsen^e  carefully  and  intelligently  the  condi- 
tions of  life  around  them  and  to  reason  sanely  and  honest- 
ly about  the  things  which  they  observe,  that  they  may 
supplement  their  school  work  by  a  more  complete  under- 
standing of  the  environment  in  which  they  are  to  live, 
and  be  better  educated  to  play  a  useful  part  in  that  en- 
vironment and  to  prosper  accordingly. 

It  may  be  that  current  normal  school  courses,  be- 
cause of  their  specific  objectives,  have  led  away  from  and 
not  towards  this  desirable  result. 

In  this  direction  there  is  an  opportunity  for  coopera- 
tion on  the  part  of  educational  institutions,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  with  the  practical  activities  of  life 
that  is  of  vital  importance.  There  is  every  reason  why 
the  situation  should  be  studied  to  determine  whether, 
through  our  schools  and  methods  of  education,  something 
can  not  be  done  to  promote  such  outside  training  and  an 
appreciation  of  its  importance.  It  would  not  only  be 
valuable  in  the  direction  of  fitting  the  student  for  the 
actual  work  of  life  but  also  it  would  train  his  mind  and 
his  imagination  and  develop  his  powers  of  dealing  with 
situations  as  they  arise.  Success  in  such  work  would  be 
an  achievement  of  which  any  plan  of  education  or  any 
school  system  might  well  be  proud. 

Consideration  of  the  simple  and  elementary  phase  of 
educational  effort  to  which  I  have  confined  my  attention, 
may  seem  out  of  place  upon  this  occasion,  where,  in  the 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  253 

halls  of  a  great  university,  matters  of  great  importance 
relating  primarily  to  university  work  are  under  discus- 
sion. It  is,  however,  largely  because  of  my  conviction 
that  more  than  ever  before  it  is  essential  that  our  entire 
scheme  of  education  should  be  definitely  correlated  with 
the  every-day  activities  of  the  world  that  I  am  so  much 
interested  in  the  efforts  that  are  being  made,  through  our 
educational  programs,  to  bring  the  schools  and  school 
work  into  closer  touch  with  business  enterprises  and  the 
affairs  of  practical  life. 

The  movement  in  this  direction  is  illustrated  by  some 
of  the  new  activities  that  have  been  introduced  into  the 
secondary  schools.  To  a  certain  extent  it  is  at  the  basis 
of  that  so-called  manual  training  that  has  become  a  dis- 
tinctive feature  of  educational  work.  Even  more  em- 
phatically, it  is  exemplified  in  the  vocational  schools 
which  are  growing  in  number  throughout  the  country. 

All  such  manual  training  and  vocational  work  in  the 
secondary  school  is  of  value  as  a  means  for  training  the 
hand  and  the  eye  and  of  developing  deftness  and  the 
capacity  for  handling  tools.  In  so  far  as  such  work  can 
be  shaped  so  as  actually  to  give  the  pupil  a  real  sense  of 
what  work  is,  the  conditions  under  which  it  is  carried  on 
and  the  attitude  and  relations  of  the  men  who  are  prac- 
tically employed  in  it,  its  value  will  be  largely  increased. 

In  many  instances  there  have  been  established  most 
effective  relations  between  secondary  schools  and  private 
enterprises  by  which  the  value  of  the  vocational  effort  in 
the  school  curriculum  has  been  greatly  increased.  Not- 
able instances  of  successful  effort  in  this  direction  are  in 
the  cities  of  Fitchburg  and  Beverly  in  Massachusetts, 
where  industrial  establishments  have  willingly  cooperated 
to  make  the  vocational  work  of  the  city  schools  more 
effective,  by  receiving  the  pupils  into  the  factories  and 
giving  them  the  opportunity  of  working  under  shop  con- 


2S4  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

ditions  while  at  the  same  time  there  is  no  sacrifice  of  the 
educational  motive. 

Cooperation  of  a  similar  kind  has  been  developed  in 
connection  with  the  courses  of  many  high  schools  of 
commerce.  The  Boston  High  School  of  Commerce,  for 
example,  has  for  many  years  placed  its  students  in  com- 
mercial establishments,  not  only  in  vacation  time,  but, 
under  proper  conditions,  during  the  school  term.  Their 
work  in  actual  going  concerns  has  served  to  give  them  a 
realizing  sense  of  the  relation  between  their  school  studies 
and  the  practical  application  of  those  studies  and  a  know- 
ledge of  men  and  of  affairs  such  as  they  might  never 
otherwise  obtain  throughout  their  course  in  the  school. 
Such  cooperation  can  undoubtedly  be  carried  on  to  a 
much  greater  extent. 

It  is  comparatively  easy  to  develop  such  relations 
with  industrial  enterprises  in  the  higher  engineering 
schools.  You  are  all  familiar  with  what  has  been  done 
by  the  University  of  Cincinnati.  Similar  courses  have 
been  adopted  by  the  University  of  Pittsburgh,  and  by 
Marquette  Universitj'  in  Milwaukee.  Schools  abroad, 
such,  for  example,  as  the  Faraday  House  in  London,  the 
College  of  Science  and  Arts  in  Glasgow,  and  the  Univer- 
sity of  Copenhagen  in  Denmark,  have  worked  out  similar 
plans. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  developments  in  this  line 
is  the  cooperative  course  in  electrical  engineering  in  the 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  in  connection  with 
the  Lynn  factory  of  the  General  Electric  Company. 

A  complete  description  of  this  course  is  published  in 
the  Bulletin  of  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Engineer- 
ing Education,  Vol.  X,  No.  10,  1920,  and  a  summary  of  it 
in  ''Science"  for  Friday,  August  20,  1920.  This  course 
is  so  comprehensive  and  interesting  that  it  is  worth  while 
to  state  brieflv  its  character. 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  255 

It  covers  five  years,  the  first  two  of  which  are  identi- 
cal with  the  regular  course  in  electrical  engineering  at  the 
Institute.  During  the  last  three  years  the  students,  who 
are  divided  into  two  sections,  work  practically  half  the 
time  at  the  Institute  and  half  the  time  at  the  plant  of  the 
General  Electric  Company  in  Lynn. 

Each  year  is  divided  into  four  periods,  during  which 
the  men  alternately  spend  thirteen  weeks  at  the  Lynn 
factory  and  eleven  weeks  at  the  Institute.  This,  with  a 
vacation  of  two  weeks,  makes  up  a  full  year.  The  men 
work  in  the  Lynn  factory  for  full  time  and  under  shop 
conditions,  and  their  production,  which  must  be  up  to 
shop  standards,  goes  into  the  regular  output  of  the  plant. 
They  are  compensated  by  the  Company  at  a  rate  which 
considerably  more  than  pays  their  tuition  at  the  Insti- 
tute. Through  the  sympathetic  effort  of  the  General 
Electric  Company,  the  living  conditions  in  Lynn  are  most 
satisfactory. 

During  the  entire  period  of  the  work  in  the  shop,  the 
educational  aspect  is  controlling.  While  the  men  have  to 
work  under  factory  conditions  and  to  conform  to  high 
standards  of  production,  the  situation  is  so  controlled 
that  what  they  do  fits  into  the  theoretical  training  which 
they  receive  at  the  Institute  in  such  a  way  as  to  promote 
the  quality  of  that  training  and  impress  upon  the  men  its 
direct  value  in  practice.  The  length  of  time  spent  in  each 
department  of  the  factory  is  regulated,  not  by  the  needs 
of  that  department  but  by  the  value  of  the  experience  to 
the  students.  Whenever  the  student  has  acquired  suf- 
ficient knowledge  in  one  department,  he  is  changed  to 
another. 

Outside  of  the  regular  work  of  the  course,  the  stu- 
dents have  the  advantage  of  many  lectures  and  demon- 
strations from  practical  men  in  the  factory  who  thus  in- 
cidentally convey  to  them  a  large  amount  of  information 


256  EDUCATIOX.\L  SESSION 

and  instruct  them  in  shop  methods  and  in  details  of 
manufacture  to  which  their  attention  might  otherwise 
not  be  called.  The  Institute  exercises  constant  super- 
vision over  the  students  in  the  factory. 

The  fifth  year  of  the  course  is  to  a  great  extent  given 
up  to  advanced  or  post  graduate  research  work  and  crea- 
tive design.  In  so  far  as  possible  the  individual  pre- 
ferencea  of  each  student  are  considered  in  determining 
just  what  his  work  shall  be  during  the  fifth  year. 

At  the  end  of  the  course,  those  who  pass  successfully 
receive  the  degrees  of  Bachelor  of  Science  and  Master  of 
Science. 

There  is  no  obligation  on  the  part  of  the  men  to  enter 
the  employ  of  the  General  Electric  Company.  No  such 
obligation  should  ever  be  imposed;  but  the  Company 
believes  that  it  will  get  from  the  graduates  of  the  course 
a  number  of  men  who  will  strengthen  its  organization.  As 
to  the  others,  while  it  pays  them  well  for  their  work  and 
has  the  burden  of  modifying  its  organization  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  the  course,  it  intends  to  get  and  will  get 
returns  from  each  individual  man  as  one  of  its  regular 
workmen,  and  is  glad  to  make  such  a  marked  contribu- 
tion to  the  development  of  well  trained  engineers  for  the 
benefit  of  the  electrical  industry  in  general. 

Thus  far  the  course  is  an  unqualified  success.  The 
Company  is  more  than  satisfied  with  the  work  of  the  men 
and  has  in  addition  the  satisfaction  of  cooperating  in  a 
notable  development  in  education.  The  students  work 
earnestly  and  persistently  in  the  factory  and  the  instruct- 
ing staff  are  practically  unanimous  in  reporting  that  in 
their  theoretical  work  the  men  show  increased  mental 
alertness  and  a  greater  fund  of  information  than  do  those 
who  have  not  had  the  advantage  of  such  factory  experi- 
ence. There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  men  who 
take  this  course  will  be  better  qualified  for  their  work  m 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  257 

life  than  Avould  be  the  case  if  they  did  not  have  this  ad- 
mirable shop  training  contemporaneously  with  their 
theoretical  studies. 

Last  year  forty  men  were  enrolled  in  the  course.  This 
year  the  number  was  limited  to  sixty.  There  were  five 
times  as  many  applications  for  membership  in  this  year 's 
class  as  in  that  of  last  year.  This  indicates  the  popularity 
of  the  course  with  the  students. 

Every  engineering  school  should  study  this  Massa- 
chusetts Institute  of  Technology-General  Electric  Comp- 
any cooperative  course  with  the  view  of  determining 
whether  it  should  not  establish  similar  courses  in  its  own 
neighborhood.  The  industries  will  surely  respond  to 
efforts  to  secure  such  cooperation.  As  a  rule,  they  are 
only  too  glad  to  promote  education,  not  only  because  they 
know  that  more  highly  trained  men  are  needed  in  every 
industry,  but  also  because  they  have  a  definite  desire  to 
help  in  the  development  of  sound  education. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  everywhere  many  industries 
would  take  the  same  broad  view  of  the  situation  as  does 
the  General  Electric  Company  and  welcome  the  oppor- 
tunity to  cooperate  with  engineering  schools  in  a  simi- 
lar way. 

Harvard  University,  in  its  relatively  new  Engineer- 
ing School,  proposes  to  develop  a  like  cooperation  with 
industrial  enterprises.  Its  program  is  discussed  by  Pro- 
fessor Hughes  in  the  number  of  the  Harvard  Garduates' 
Magazine  for  September  1920. 

In  addition  to  the  course  carried  on  in  conjuction 
with  the  General  Electric  Company,  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology  has  a  five  year  course  in  Chemi- 
cal Engineering  which  is  also  on  a  cooperative  basis. 
During  the  last  two  years  of  the  course,  the  school  work 
is  carried  on  in  a  series  of  stations  each  located  at  and 
associated  with  some  chemical  industry.     The  class  is 


258  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

distributed  among  those  stations  in  groups  of  equal  size, 
each  group  remaining  at  a  station  for  a  certain  number 
of  weeks  and  then  going  to  a  new  station. 

By  this  plan,  also,  the  men,  concurrently  with  their 
theoretical  work,  will  learn  factory  conditions,  the 
nature  and  character  of  the  type  of  men  with  whom  they 
will  necessarily  be  associated  in  practical  affairs,  and 
the  real  relations  between  their  theoretical  studies  and 
the  application  of  those  studies  in  practice.  While 
their  education  is  going  on,  they  will  become  alive  to 
the  nature  of  the  problems  with  which  that  education  is 
fitting  them  to  deal.  This  course  also  promises  to  be 
most  successful. 

Such  methods  of  cooperation,  whether  by  universi- 
ties or  secondary  schools,  are  undoubtedly  of  the  great- 
est value  in  giving  to  the  students  as  an  incident  to 
their  general  education  a  practical  acquaintance  with 
the  activities  of  life  which  under  modem  conditions  they 
are  not  likely  otherwise  to  get  to  an  adequate  degree. 
They  learn  to  view  their  theoretical  work  much  more 
nearly  in  true  perspective.  They  come  to  apprehend 
how  definitely  the  study  of  principles  should  be  co- 
ordinated with  the  practical  applications  of  those  prin- 
ciples. Their  interest  in  their  work  is  greatly  promoted 
by  the  definite  knowledge  which  they  acquire  of  the 
relation  between  theory  and  practice. 

The  history  of  vocational  education  in  the  second- 
ary schools  shows  clearly  that  many  boys  and  girls  who 
have  displayed  no  aptitude  or  inclination  for  study  and 
have  accomplished  little  in  the  ordinary  school  courses, 
are  so  stimulated  by  their  practical  work,  where  they 
can  see  the  results  of  their  efforts,  that  they  soon  real- 
ize that  book  education  is  of  essential  value.  Thus  as  an 
incident  to  their  vocational  activities  they  gain  a  real 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  259 

capacity  for  achievement  in  the  very  studies  in  which 
they  formerly  took  no  interest. 

The  cooperative  courses  in  the  engineering  schools 
undoubtedly  operate  in  a  similar  way.  Men  who  can 
not  definitely  api^rehend  the  value  to  their  future  career 
of  the  study  of  principles  as  taught  in  books  and  in  the 
lecture  room  and  who  therefore  do  not  take  a  live  in- 
terest in  such  study  are,  because  of  their  shop  work,  in- 
cited to  more  intelligent,  sympathetic  and  enthusiastic 
effort  to  master  the  theories  which  they  now  find  to  be  at 
the  foundation  of  all  practical  effort.  They  learn  to 
appreciate  that  theoretical  study  is  essential  and  inti- 
mately associated  with  the  activities  of  life. 

In  addition  to  this  underlying  value,  from  the  point 
of  view  of  educational  efficiency,  of  cooperation  between 
such  institutions  and  the  industries,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  plan  results  in  many  other  advantages. 
It  is  extremely  helpful  for  men  who  are  entering  upon 
their  life 's  work  to  have  already,  as  an  asset,  some  prac- 
tical acquaintance  with  the  conditions  and  methods  of 
the  industry  to  which  they  propose  to  devote  them- 
selves. If  when  they  are  thrown  upon  their  own  re- 
sources, the  practical  aspects  of  the  business  are  all  new 
to  them,  they  are  sure  to  make  mistakes  which  count 
against  them  to  an  unreasonable  extent.  This  danger 
is  reduced  if  they  have  already  had  actual  experience. 

But  to  my  mind  the  great  value  of  such  cooperation 
is  that  it  clarifies  the  situation  so  that  the  students  in 
every  way  work  more  intelligently  and  enthusiastically 
and  with  a  more  complete  apprehension  of  the  relations 
between  theory  and  practice. 

Attempts  at  definite  cooperation  between  educa- 
tional institutions  and  outside  enterprises  have  been  to 
a  large  extent  confined  to  the  fields  of  engineering,  com- 
merce and  industry  which  are  obviously  well  adapted 


260  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

for  such  cooperative  effort.  In  many  departments  of 
education  it  would  undoubtedly  be  something  of  a  prob- 
lem to  devise  suitable  methods  for  supplementing  school 
training  by  contract  with  outside  activities.  For  ex- 
ample, it  would  be  difficult  to  establish  such  relations  of 
a  kind  that  would  help  toward  a  more  comprehensive 
and  effective  education  in  languages,  history  or  philoso- 
phy. All  studies,  however,  should  surely  be  carried  on 
Avith  the  conditions  of  practical  life  definitely  in  mind. 

On  the  other  hand,  sound  education  in  economics 
would  surely  be  advanced  if  the  students  could  be 
brought  into  practical  touch  with  the  social,  commercial 
and  business  situation  of  the  world,  that  they  might  test 
out  theories  and  be  in  a  position  to  determine  how  far 
they  were  compatible  with  practical  conditions.  At  the 
present  time  there  seems  to  be  no  field  of  educational 
effort  that  is  less  satisfactory  than  that  devoted  to  find- 
ing and  teaching  the  truth  as  to  economic  relations  and 
theories.  University  work  in  that  field  to  be  valid  and 
comprehensive  requires  a  knowledge  of  practical  con- 
ditions such  as  cannot  be  adequately  acquired  in  the 
library  or  lecture  room.  If  some  method  could  be  de- 
vised by  which  both  teachers  and  students  could  come 
into  active  contact  with  the  economic  problems  of  the 
day  as  they  really  exist  in  business  and  in  society,  they 
would  be  much  more  likely  to  get  sound  theoretical  prin- 
ciples, as  well  as  acquire  sound  views  as  to  the  wise  and 
sane  application  of  such  principles  to  existing  condi- 
tions. 

Every  effort  should  surely  be  made  to  bring  about 
definite  cooperation  between  institutions  of  learning 
and  those  engaged  in  the  practical  work  of  life,  for  the 
determination  of  economic  principles  and  the  intelligent 
application  of  them.  The  views,  as  to  economic  truths, 
of  those  in  the  community  who  are  dealing  with  things 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  261 

as  they  are,  are  based  upon  an  experience  such  as 
teachers  can  not  get  or  books  reflect,  and  are  therefore 
entitled  to  respectful  consideration.  They  should  be 
definitely  taken  into  account  in  all  academic  work. 

Generally  speaking,  it  seems  that  the  work  of  all  de- 
partments of  education  should,  as  far  as  possible,  be  co- 
ordinated with  the  practical  conditions  of  life.  Where- 
ever  a  definite  plan  can  be  devised  by  which  educational 
institutions  can  work  in  close  cooperation  with  those 
who  are  actively  engaged  in  the  world's  activities,  so 
that  theory  and  practice  may  go  hand  in  hand  and  each 
be  viewed  in  the  light  of  the  other,  so  that  each  will 
react  upon  the  other  with  constructive  results,  the 
quality  and  effectiveness  of  education  will  surely  be  ad- 
vanced. 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  fact  that  vocational 
work  in  the  secondary  schools  and  cooperation  with  the 
industries  in  liigher  institutions  in  many  instances  lead 
to  an  appreciation  of  the  value  of  book  study  and  an  in- 
terest in  it  that  do  not  exist  until  the  views  of  the  stu- 
dents are  clarified  by  practical  work.  In  like  manner  it 
seems  clear  that  in  all  departments  of  education,  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest,  many  students  fail  to  have  a 
real  interest  in  their  work  because  they  do  not  see  its 
bearing  upon  the  activities  of  their  life.  They  are  in- 
clined to  look  upon  their  school  work  as  something  im- 
posed upon  them  by  arbitrary  authority.  They  do  not 
realize  its  value  and  therefore  cannot  bring  themselves 
to  devote  to  it  the  energy  necessary  for  success. 

This  is  particularly  true  of  those  in  the  lower  school 
grades.  Many  children  leave  school  as  soon  as  the  law 
allows,  not  because  their  families  cannot  afford  to  keep 
them  longer  at  school  but  because  neither  they  nor  their 
parents  have  a  realizing  sense  of  what  education  means 


262  EDUCATIOX-\L  SESSION 

and  the  part  that  it  might  play  in  their  future  work  if 
the  opportunity  for  it  was  properly  utilized. 

To  some  extent  the  same  is  true  of  students  in  the 
higher  institutions  of  learning.  They  do  not  all  appre- 
hend the  real  purpose  of  education  and  what  it  would 
mean  in  after  life  if  full  advantage  were  taken  of  edu- 
cational opportunities.  Such  men,  not  taking  much  in- 
terest in  their  school  work,  get  little  from  it. 

There  is  less  of  this  sort  of  misunderstanding  in  the 
professional  schools  where  even  those  who  have  regard- 
ed their  educational  opportunities  in  college  merely  as 
an  incident  and  not  of  real  value,  frequently  wake  up  to 
the  fact  that  the  work  which  they  now  are  doing  is  con- 
cerned with  the  actualities  of  life  and  is  of  importance  to 
their  subsequent  careers.  But  even  in  the  professional 
schools  the  truth  is  not  always  clearly  apprehended. 

The  only  way  to  meet  this  difficulty  is  to  devise 
ways  by  which,  during  the  school  period,  all  students 
shall  surely  become  impressed  with  the  actual  relation 
between  education  and  the  affairs  of  life,  that  they  may 
realize  how  important  it  is  that  they  should  take  advan- 
tage of  every  opportunity  for  training. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  so  many  college  graduates 
enter  into  the  work  of  life  with  wrong  ideas  as  to  the 
nature  of  that  work  and  the  conditions  under  which 
it  is  to  be  carried  on.  Many  failures  are  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  men  find  themselves  unable  to  approach  prac- 
tical conditions  in  such  a  spirit  that  they  can  adjust 
themselves  to  their  surroundings. 

I  have  known  graduates  of  law  schools  who  while 
well  grounded  in  the  principles  of  law  have  been  so 
ignorant  of  the  part  that  the  law  plays  in  society  aad  of 
the  true  function  and  real  relation  of  the  lawyer  to  the 
community,  that  they  have  not  succeeded  at  the  bar  in 
proportion  to  their  ability. 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  263 

It  must  be  of  the  utmost  importance  that  in  every 
department  of  education  and  throughout  the  entire 
school  and  university  courses  the  most  definite  effort 
should  be  made  to  correlate  the  school  work  with  the 
normal  activities  of  life.  To  as  great  an  extent  as 
possible  the  student  should  be  brought  in  touch  with 
affairs,  not  in  a  blind  fashion  but  with  such  guidance 
that  he  may  apprehend  in  true  perspective  the  real 
function  of  school  education  and  how  thoroughly  it 
should  be  made  to  fit  one  for  the  environment  in  which 
he  is  to  live.  Such  effort  will  undoubtedly  lead  to  some 
substantial  modifications  in  our  school  courses,  and  to 
marked  change  of  emphasis  in  others. 

In  addition  to  cooperation  with  the  industries  and 
with  the  other  activities  of  life,  cooperation  should  be 
sought  from  individual  men.  Those  who  are  actively 
employed  in  the  world's  work  and  who  have  attained  to 
leadership  in  their  respective  lines  of  effort  should  be 
commandeered  for  service.  The  present  practice  of 
bringing  before  college  students  men  of  note  who  are 
familiar  with  current  affairs,  to  address  them  and  talk 
familiarly  with  them,  should  be  extended.  But  the  men 
should  be  carefully  selected.  They  should  be  wise, 
sincere,  and  broad-minded.  The  subjects  discussed 
should  be,  generally  speaking,  those  of  fundamental 
importance,  bringing  before  the  student  the  normal  con- 
ditions of  life  and  of  the  activities  of  life  in  their  true 
relation.  It  is  not  important  that  fads  or  temporary  and 
perhaps  sentimental  issues  should  be  presented. 

Even  in  the  law  school  it  might  be  of  the  greatest 
advantage  if  each  year  a  number  of  judges  and  outside 
lawyers  of  high  character  and  large  experience  could 
talk  to  the  students,  not  to  instruct  them  in  legal 
principles  or  the  application  of  those  principles,  but  to 


264  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

give  them  a  clear  idea  of  what  should  be  the  standards 
and  aspirations  of  the  men  in  that  profession. 

There  is  another  field  of  cooperation  between  uni- 
versities and  the  normal  activities  of  life  to  which  it  is 
proper  to  call  attention. 

Sound  knowledge  is  the  basis  of  wise  action  in  every 
form  of  social  and  business  effort.  The  problems  of 
government  as  well  as  those  of  commerce  and  industry, 
not  to  speak  of  the  more  irregular  movements  in  the 
direction  of  social  change,  can  not  be  dealt  with  wisely 
or  satisfactorily  except  with  full  knowledge  of  the  rele- 
vant facts.  Moreover,  before  it  is  safe  to  act,  these  facts 
when  known  must  be  brought  together  and  carefully 
analyzed  and  viewed  in  their  true  relation.  This  re- 
quires the  exercise  of  trained  powers  of  observation, 
judgment  and  reasoning  and  careful  study  on  the  part 
of  trained  men  as  well  as  imagination  of  a  high  order. 
Many  in  the  world  at  large  have  some  of  the  necessary 
qualifications  for  such  work,  but  for  the  most  part  they 
are  hampered  by  definite  limitations.  They  are  too 
actively  employed  in  practical  affairs  to  have  oppor- 
tunity for  systematic  investigation  and  careful  study. 
They  are  often  not  accustomed  to  the  kind  of  mental 
operations  that  are  required  to  cover  all  portions  of  the 
ground  that  must  be  covered.  Sometimes  they  are 
biased  by  their  own  relations  to  the  situation  or  their 
own  prejudices. 

It  would  be  of  the  greatest  value  to  society  if  the 
higher  institutions  of  learning  could  organize  so  as  to 
help  in  the  solution  of  all  such  problems,  as  recognized 
authorities  whose  advice  would  be  sought  and  respect- 
fully considerd  in  matters  of  general  interest  which  re- 
quire expert  investigation. 

The  whole  course  of  legislation  throughout  the 
country  shows  conspiciously  to  how  large  an  extent  men, 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  265 

for  the  most  part  well  intentioned,  are  willing  to  pass 
laws,  often  carelessly  framed,  without  sufficient  know- 
ledge of  the  conditions  and  with  practically  no  thought 
of  the  reactions  which  may  follow.  Not  infrequently 
governmental  policies  fail  because  of  the  shortsighted 
ignorance  of  those  responsible  for  them. 

The  time  may  come  when  the  higher  institutions  of 
learning  will  be  so  constituted  as  to  attain  a  recognized 
position  as  advisers  in  such  matters.  It  seems  as  if  no- 
where else  could  be  developed  a  body  of  suitable  quality 
and  prestige  for  such  work. 

This  may  be  but  a  dream.  It  can  be  realized,  if 
ever,  only  when,  by  definite  effort,  the  professional 
scholars  of  the  university  have  correlated  their  theoret- 
ical training  and  knowledge  with  such  a  clear  apprecia- 
tion of  practical  conditions  that  they  will  have  and  will 
deserve  the  confidence  of  the  community  as  a  whole,  as 
well  as  those  who  are  responsible  for  legislative  and  gov- 
ernmental activities,  as  to  their  capacity  as  advisers. 

But  at  the  present  time  there  is  a  great  opportunity 
for  the  universities  to  aid  in  the  solution  of  engineering 
problems  and  in  the  development  of  all  forms  of  in- 
dustry. Much  has  already  been  accomplished  in  this 
direction.  Agriculture  has  been  to  a  large  extent  pro- 
moted by  the  cooperation  of  the  universities  and  many 
of  the  universities  have  done  much,  by  way  of  research 
and  advice,  in  the  solution  of  engineering  and  industrial 
problems. 

While  the  larger  industries  are  recognizing  more 
and  more  clearly  the  necessity  for  scientific  work  in  the 
development  of  improved  methods  and  machinery  and 
the  discovery  of  new  ways  in  which  the  forces  of  nature 
may  be  controlled,  and  many  of  them  have  admirable 
research  organizations  of  their  own,  there  is  a  great  field 
for  effort  in  this  direction  on  the  part  of  the  universities. 


266  EDUCATIOX-U  SESSION 

They  can  surely  organize  so  as  to  succeed  in  such  work 
and  no  other  organization,  governmental  or  private,  can 
be  suggested  which  is  so  promising.  Original  scientific 
investigation  and  research,  the  bringing  together  of  all 
available  information  from  all  sources,  including  books, 
and  the  scientific  arrangement  and  •  coordination  of  all 
the  material  collected,  are  well  within  the  scope  of  the 
universities. 

If  they  can  show  that  they  can  really  serve  the  in- 
dustries in  this  way,  there  is  no  limit  to  the  extent  to 
which  they  will  be  called  upon  for  such  service.  Business 
men  will  welcome  the  opportunity  for  submitting  their 
problems  to  such  a  body  of  trained  men  as  the  universi- 
ties might  bring  together,  working  with  such  libraries 
and  in  such  properly  equipped  laboratories  as  would 
give  adequate  facilities  for  investigation. 

The  advantages  to  the  universities  of  development 
in  such  directions  are  obvious.  If  they  could  acquire  the 
confidence  of  the  public  in  such  work,  it  would  be  crowd- 
ed upon  them  and  their  value  to  society  would  be  even 
more  generally  recognized  and  appreciated  than  is  the 
case  to-day.  As  their  prestige  and  the  pride  of  the  com- 
munity in  their  achievements  increased,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  their  importance  to  society  would  be  more 
than  ever  recognized  in  terms  of  adequate  financial 
support. 

Incidentally,  I  believe  that  their  efficiency  as  educa- 
tional agencies  would  be  greatly  promoted  by  pursuing 
such  lines  of  development.  Certainly,  such  close  co- 
operation with  the  activities  of  life  would  bring  about 
that  reaction  between  educational  methods  and  the 
necessities  of  practical  affairs  that  seems  essential  to  the 
best  educational  work.  The  whole  atmosphere  of  the 
institutions  would  be  invigorated  bv  the  reaction  of  the 


CONSTRUCTIVE  MEASURES  267 

methods  of  research  and  of  expert  service  upon  the 
methods  of  teaching. 

I  am  glad  to  know  that  this,  the  State  University  of 
Michigan,  is  taking  definite  steps  to  establish  and  pro- 
mote such  research  and  advisory  work  in  cooperation 
with  neighboring  industries.  There  are  no  limits  to 
which  such  efforts  may  prove  effective  for  the  promo- 
tion of  our  national  well  being.  And  the  time  may  come 
when  methods  of  a  like  character  may  to  advantage  be 
extended  beyond  the  fields  of  engineering  and  industry, 
even  to  the  point  where,  through  our  universities,  care- 
ful study  and  research  by  trained  investigators  and 
thinkers  who  are  thoroughly  and  sympathetically  in- 
formed as  to  practical  conditions,  may  be  available  to 
aid  in  the  work  of  legislation  and  of  social  development, 
where  at  the  present  time  action  is  too  often  based  on 
sentiment  and  on  beliefs  and  conclusions  that  are  too 
hastily  formed,  instead  of  on  sound  thought  and  reason- 
ing. 


THE  AET   OF   EXAMINATION 


A.    LAWRENCE    EOWELE,    PH.D.,    LL.D. 

President  of  Harvard  University 


We  have  met  here  not  only  to  participate  in  the 
inauguration  of  Mr.  Burton  as  the  new  President  of  the 
University  of  Michigan,  and  to  express  our  hope  and  con- 
fidence in  the  future  of  that  great  institution;  but  also  to 
take  an  account  of  stock  in  the  educational  progress  of  the 
nation.  Everyone  will  admit  that  the  present  condition  of 
of  education  in  this  country  has  its  merits  and  its  defects. 
The  product  of  our  schools  and  colleges  shows  a  remark- 
able degree  of  resourcefulness  and  adaptability.  This 
may  not  be  wholly  due  to  our  educational  system,  but  in 
part  to  the  environment,  which  tends  to  develop  these 
qualities  in  our  people;  for  they  are  shown  also  by  men 
\vhose  systematic  education  has  been  exceedingly  limited. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  easy  to  underrate  the  effects  of  school- 
ing. Men  often  attribute  far  too  little  to  their  instruction, 
and  too  much  to  their  own  inherent  qualities.  It  is  cer- 
tain not  only  that  our  education  has  not  tended  to  dimin- 
ish natural  resourcefulness  and  adaptability,  but  that 
these  very  traits  have  been  shown  most  markedly  among 
college-bred  men,  as  w^as  seen  among  our  college  grad- 
uates in  the  late  war.  The  two  qualities  of  resourceful- 
ness and  adaptability  have  been,  indeed,  those  that  we 
have  most  needed  in  the  past.  They  have  been  abso- 
lutely essential  for  the  great  American  achievement,  un- 
paralleled in  so  short  a  period,  of  bringing  under  culti- 
vation a  vast  wilderness,  of  developing  the  mines  and 
other  natural  resources  of  a  continent,  and  of  developing 


THE  ART  OF  EXAMINATION  269 

various  industries  for  a  hundred  millions  of  people.  But 
all  this  has  now  been  in  large  part  done;  the  cream  has 
been  skimmed ;  and  the  great  need  of  the  hour  is  a  better 
conservation,  a  more  complete  and  scientific  use,  of  our  re- 
sources. In  short,  the  time  for  superficial  treatment  on  a 
large  scale  has  largely  passed,  and  the  time  has  come  for 
the  greater  thoroughness  of  an  older  civilization. 

Wisdom  consists,  not  in  glorying  in  one 's  merits,  but 
in  curing  one 's  defects ;  and  the  great  defect  in  American 
education  has  been  the  lack  of  thoroughness.  The  Euro- 
pean professional  man  is  apt  to  have  a  wider  knowledge 
and  a  broader  foundation  than  the  American.  Professor 
Maurice  Caullery,  in  his  recent  book  on  the  universities 
and  scientific  life  in  the  United  States,  in  speaking  of 
engineering  education  says,  '  ^  The  conditions  of  the  train- 
ing of  the  American  engineer  and  his  French  colleague 
are  very  different.  The  latter  has  certainly  a  very  mark- 
ed superiority  in  theoretical  scientific  instruction.  I  am 
told,  indeed,  that  since  the  war  has  brought  into  the 
American  industries  a  rather  large  number  of  our  engi- 
neers, this  fact  is  well  recognized.  There  is  in  the  United 
States  nothing  to  compare  with  the  preparation  for  our 
competitive  examinations  for  the  Ecole  Poly  technique 
and  the  Ecole  Centrale.  The  first-year  students — the 
freshmen — in  the  engineering  schools  are  very  feebly 
equipped."  On  the  other  hand,  he  says,  '*It  is  not  less 
true  that  the  American  engineer  gives  abundant  proof  of 
the  combination  of  qualities  which  he  needs."  He  then 
goes  on  to  give  an  example  from  Mann's  Bulletin  on 
Engineering  Education  to  show  that  of  the  freshmen  in 
tewnty-two  engineering  schools  only  about  one-third 
could  solve  a  simple  algebraic  equation.  We  are  told  also 
that  the  English  physiologists  have  a  great  advantage 
over  ours  in  a  more  comprehensive  knowledge  of  physics 
and    chemistry;    and    probably    anyone    familiar    with 


270  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

learned  professions  in  the  two  countries  could  give  other 
examples. 

As  usual,  a  number  of  causes  no  doubt  contribute  to 
the  lack  of  thoroughness  in  American  education.  One 
obviously  is  the  briefness  of  time  spent  in  study  from 
birth  through  graduation  from  college.  This  is  especial- 
ly true  in  the  younger  years.  Our  children  begin  late  and 
go  slowly,  apparently  on  the  theory  that  the  less  con- 
scious effort  a  boy  puts  into  the  process  of  education  the 
more  rapidly  will  he  proceed.  Another  cause  is  the  con- 
stant insertion  of  new  subjects  which  are  either  not  of  a 
very  severe  nature  or  ought  to  be  extra  curriculum  ac- 
tivities, subjects  which  are  inserted  to  the  displacement 
of  more  serious  ones.  If  someone  suggests  that  rural 
walks  and  the  observation  of  nature  are  good,  the  school, 
instead  of  providing  for  them  outside  of  school  hours,  in- 
serts them  in  the  school  time  in  the  place  of  language, 
history  or  mathematics. 

A  third  cause  is  the  absence  of  rigorous  standards 
which,  until  a  few  years  ago,  pervaded  most  college  work 
more  than  it  does  to-day,  and  which  I  fear  is  still  too 
largely  present  in  the  schools.  Last  year  a  boy  from  a 
good  high  school  not  far  from  the  central  part  of  the 
country  offered  himself  for  the  College  Entrance  Board 
examinations.  He  was  the  valedictorian  of  his  class,  and 
yet  in  five  subjects — in  all  of  which  he  had  obtained  a 
double  A  at  school — his  marks  were  as  follows:  English 
Literature  50;  Latin  41;  American  History  37;  Ancient 
History  30;  Plane  Geometry  33.  In  Physics,  in  which  he 
had  a  B  at  school — which  is,  I  suppose,  an  honor  mark — 
his  mark  was  only  28.  The  papers  of  the  College  Entrance 
Examination  Board  are  not  made  out,  nor  are  the  books 
marked,  by  any  one  college,  but  by  a  body  representing 
the  colleges  and  schools.  A  difference  in  preparation 
might  very  well  affect  to  some  extent  an  examination  in 


THE  ART  OF  EXAMINATION  271 

literature  and  history,  possibly  even  in  Latin;  but  sure- 
ly a  boy  who  obtains  an  unusually  high  mark  at  school  in 
plane  geometry  ought  not  to  fail  any  entrance  examina- 
tion with  so  low  a  grade  as  33  per  cent. 

The  failure  to  maintain  rigorous  standards  may  well 
be  connected  with  the  American  system  of  measurement 
by  credits  instead  of  by  attainment.  Courses,  whether  in 
school,  in  college  or  in  any  kind  of  education,  instead  of 
being  treated  as  an  end,  should  be  regarded  as  a  means; 
and  a  test  in  them  should  be,  not  a  final  award,  but  a  mere 
measure  of  progress.  At  present  the  credit  for  a  course  is 
treated  like  a  deposit  in  a  savings  bank,  without  a  sus- 
picion that  the  deposit  is  rot  of  gold  that  can  be  drawn 
upon  at  its  face  value,  but  of  a  perishable  article.  To 
change  the  metaphor,  we  treat  it  like  wheat  poured  into 
a  grain  elevator,  whereas  it  is  often  more  like  the  con- 
tents of  a  cold  storage  plant  without  the  means  of  re- 
frigeration. Indeed,  it  is  sometimes  more  like  the  con- 
tents of  an  incinerator. 

There  is  an  old  saying  in  England  that  an  educated 
man  should  have  forgotten  Greek.  If  the  adage  is  true,  it 
is  not  because  the  man  had  forgotten  Greek,  but  be- 
cause he  retained  something  worth  while  from  having 
learned  it.  Even  if  the  material  put  into  the  mind  be  not 
perishable,  we  ought  to  distinguish  between  information 
and  education.  Let  me  quote  again  Professor  Caullery. 
He  says,  ''One  must  not  confound  education  and  infor- 
mation. There  is  in  the  American  system,  from  the  intel- 
lectual point  of  view,  too  much  of  the  second  and  too  little 
of  the  first. ' '  Storing  in  the  mind  is  not  enough ;  we  must 
also  train  the  student  to  use  the  store ;  and  accumulating 
credits  for  things  done  is  not  the  way  to  attain  the  result. 
When  a  man's  life  ends,  we  ask  what  he  has  done;  but  a 
diploma  from  a  school  or  a  degree  from  a  college  or  uni- 
versity is  not  an  obituary,  and  when  a  student's  educa- 


272  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

tion  ends  we  should  ask,  not  what  he  has  done,  but  what 

he  is  or  has  become. 

Can  we  measure  what  the  boy  or  man  is  or  has  be- 
come; can  we  measure  him  as  he  stands?  It  does  not 
seem  impossible.  Yet  most  of  our  examinations  are 
adapted  to  ascertain  little  except  knowledge,  which  tends 
to  promote  mere  cramming ;  Avhereas  the  tests  in  the  great 
school  of  active  life  depends  rather  upon  the  ability  to 
use  information.  Surely  examinations  can  be  framed  to 
measure  not  only  knowledge  but  the  ability  to  compre- 
hend and  correlate  what  is  known.  In  short,  to  test  the 
grasp  of  a  subject  as  a  whole.  Such  a  grasp  requires  a 
more  rigorous  training  in  fundamentals  than  we  are  in 
the  habit  of  exacting.  An  examination  of  this  kind 
would  be  not  only  a  measure  of  that  which  we  desire  to 
ascertain,  but  it  would  tend  also  to  direct  attention  to 
a  field  of  thought  instead  of  to  small  isolated  fragments 
of  it.  In  short,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  examina- 
tions essentially  control  the  content  of  education.  If 
examinations  demand  a  thorough  knowledge  of  funda- 
mental principles,  the  teachers  will  provide  it  and  the 
students  will  attempt  to  acquire  it.  If  they  require 
merely  a  certain  amount  of  miscellaneous  knowledge,  that 
will  be  the  aim  of  instruction ;  and  if,  as  in  many  schools, 
there  is  no  examination  at  all,  there  is  naturally  less  in- 
ducement to  attain  a  very  high  standard  of  any  kind. 

The  mechanical  practice  of  credit  for  courses  is,  I 
believe,  the  gravest  defect  in  the  American  educational 
system,  and  we  ought  to  strive  for  some  method  of 
general  examinations  testing  the  real  grasp  of  a  subject 
as  a  whole.  But  if  such  examinations  are  possible,  it  is 
nevertheless  certain  that  they  demand  skill  which  can 
be  acquired  only  by  practice.  The  art  of  examination 
is  a  difficult  one,  and  in  America  it  is  still  in  its  infancy, 
particularly  in  the  matter  of  measuring  the  ability  to 


THE  ART  OF  EXAMINATION  273 

use  one's  knowledge.  The  new  psychological  tests  are 
interesting  as  an  attempt  to  do  this,  to  measure  the 
capacity  of  the  boy  or  man  as  he  stands.  They  are 
crude,  and  for  our  purpose  they  suffer  under  the  defect 
of  assuming  only  the  most  elementary  information.  We 
need  tests  that  will  measure  ability  to  use  scholarly  and 
specific  knowledge.  Anyone  who  attempts  to  introduce 
examinations  of  this  kind  will  be  disappointed  at  first, 
because  the  art  has  not  yet  been  sufficiently  developed. 
To  use  them  effectively,  we  need  to  learn  that  the  conduct 
of  examinations  is  as  important  and  worthy  a  part  of  the 
educational  process  as  giving  lectures,  and  quite  as 
stimulating  to  the  teacher.  Ascertaining  what  the  pupil 
knows,  measuring  his  progress  and  deficiencies,  is,  in- 
deed, a  part  of  teaching,  and  quite  as  essential  a  portion 
of  it  as  the  imparting  of  information.  The  true  teacher 
should  be  constantly  both  developing  the  mind  of  his 
pupil,  and  ascertaining  how  rapidly  and  beneficially  the 
process  is  going  on.  One  of  the  defects  of  much  of  our 
teaching — and  especially  of  the  lecture  system — is  that 
this  second  part  of  the  function  of  education  is  to  a  great 
degree  lost  from  sight.  An  improvement  in  our  examina- 
tion system  which  will  measure  the  grasp  of  a  whole  sub- 
ject is,  I  believe,  the  most  serious  advance  that  can  be 
made  in  American  education  to-day. 


THE  SALARY  PROBLEM 


HON.    CHARLES    L.    SOMMERS,    A.B. 

Regent  of  the  University  oj  Minnesota 


In  mathematics,  problems  may  be  classified  accord- 
ing to  the  definiteness  of  their  solution. 

A  problem  may  have  one,  and  only  one  possible 
solution,  in  which  case  it  is  said  to  be  "uniquely  deter- 
mined. ' ' 

A  problem  may  have  a  limited  number  of  solutions, 
or  again,  it  may  have  an  unlimited  number  of  solutions, 
each  of  which  satisfies  its  conditions.  In  this  case  it  is 
said  to  be  "indeterminate." 

A  problem  may  have  no  solution,  in  which  case  it  is 
called  "impossible." 

The  problem  before  us  clearly  falls  in  this  last  class. 
It  is  one  that  is  neither  "uniquely  determined"  with  a 
single  solution,  nor  "indeterminate"  with  many.  It  is 
a  problem  with  no  beginning  and  no  end,  whose  terms 
and  conditions  change  from  month  to  month,  and  even 
from  day  to  day;  a  problem  that  baffles  and  puzzles  not 
only  regents  and  trustees  and  presidents  of  our  univer- 
sities, but  also  the  executives  and  administrators  of  all 
other  institutions.  It  is  the  spectre  that  haunts  the  of- 
fices of  railroad  officials  and  bank  presidents;  it  worries 
the  managers  of  our  industrial  plants  and  troubles  and 
perplexes  the  Avhole  world  of  trade  and  commerce — ever 
present  and  never  presenting  a  definite  solution.  Truly, 
it  is  an  impossible  problem.  One  can  study  it  and  pon- 
der over  it — in  fact,  one  must  do  that — but  to  no  one 
of  us  will  it  ever  be  given  to  put  doAvm  an  answer  in  black 
and  white,  with  the  letters  Q.  E.  D.  below  it! 


THE  SALARY  PROBLEM  275 

In  industry,  the  problem,  while  always  present  and 
troublesome,  is  nevertheless  far  from  hopeless.  Here 
there  is  always  the  chance,  or  expectation,  of  passing 
along  possible  losses  to  some  one  else.  In  schools  and 
colleges  and  institutions  which  must  live  within  a  fixed 
income,  the  problem  is  acute.  We  may  not  hope  to  solve 
it ;  the  best  that  we  may  do  is  to  seek  to  understand  it  and 
to  try  to  benefit  by  such  understanding. 

The  gist  of  the  whole  salary  problem,  as  applied  to 
educational  institutions,  is  the  question  as  to  whether  or 
not  the  teaching  staff,  under  present  conditions,  is  being 
paid  an  adequate  wage  for  the  service  rendered.  On  this 
subject  masses  of  statistics  have  been  gathered  by  our 
national  bureaus,  both  of  education  and  labor.  It  will 
be  unnecessary  for  me  to  quote  these  to  any  great  extent. 
It  may  be  accepted  as  proved  that  teachers'  salaries  are 
inadequate  and  that  the  whole  profession,  as  compared 
with  trades,  vocations  and  professions  generally,  is  great- 
ly underpaid. 

Professor  Carl  Holliday,  of  the  University  of  Toledo, 
using  the  figures  of  the  Bureau  of  Education  as  a  basis, 
finds  that  the  average  salary  of  all  American  college 
teachers  is  $1,549.29  per  annum,  or  $29.79  per  week. 

In  our  state-supported  universities  and  colleges  the 
figures  are  as  follows: 

Full  professors  $2,476.25 

Associate  professors    1,898.96 

Assistant  professors    1473.65 

Instructors  1,135.50 

or  $21.84  per  week  for  college  instructors! 

Taking  the  group  of  the  six  leading  state  univer- 
sities of  the  middle  west,  the  average  salary  of  the  above 
grades  is  considerably  high.  But  even  here  we  find 
that  out  of  1,913  teachers  receiving  $1,000  or  more  per 
annum,  about  1,400  (or  nearly  75%)  received  salaraies 
of  less  than  $3,000. 


276  EDUCATIOX.\L  SESSION 

The  average  maximum  and  minimum  salaries  of  all 
the  sixty-eight  land  grant  and  state  universities,  accord- 
ing to  figures  supplied  by  the  Case  School  of  Applied 
Science  of  Cleveland,  are  as  follows: 

Maximum  Minimum, 

Deans     $3,745.00  $2,827.00 

Full    professors    3,185.00  2,228.00 

Associate  professors    2,375.00  1,779.00 

Assistant   professors    1,900.00  1455.00 

Instructors   1,557.00  900.00 

Let  us  assume  that  it  takes  about  eleven  years  of 
study  after  the  grammer  school  grades,  and  an  invest- 
ment of  somewhere  between  $5,000  and  $15,000  to  prop- 
erly equip  a  college  teacher.  If  he  averages  $1,800  a 
year  for  the  first  ten  years  of  teaching,  he  is  very  for- 
tunate. Compare  this  with  the  earnings  in  industry. 
An  average  drygoods  or  boot-and-shoe  traveling  sales- 
man will  earn  $3,000  to  $3,500  per  year,  and  all  his 
road  expenses  paid.  In  the  writer's  own  business  there 
are  a  dozen  travelling  men  whose  individual  earnings  are 
more  than  the  average  salaries  of  the  deans  in  the  sixty- 
eight  land  grant  universities  above  referred  to. 

But  travelling  salesmen  belong  to  the  so-called 
''white-collar-class."  Presumably  they  have  some  edu- 
cation, a  good  address,  and  natural  tact  and  ability. 
Let  us  make  our  comparison  with  the  class  of  skilled 
labor, — with  men  who  work  principally  with  their  hands 
and  whose  training  has  cost  them  little  or  nothing.  Ac- 
cording to  statistics  furnished  recently  by  the  Building 
Trades  Council  of  a  large  city  of  the  middle  west,  cer- 
tain classes  of  skilled  laborers  are  to-day  earning  ap- 
proximately the  following  wages,  based  on  an  eight-hour 
day — due  allowances  having  been  made  for  the  average 
of  lost  time  in  each  particular  trade,  but  not  counting 
earnings  from  possible  overtime: 


THE  SALARY  PROBLEM  277 

Steam-fitters,  plumbers,  and  electricians $2,280  per  year 

Carpenters   2,04x5        " 

Bricklayers  and  plasterers 1,950        " 

Painters    i  ,800        " 

The  average  of  these  figures  is  considerably  higher 
than  that  paid  to  associate  professors  in  our  state-sup- 
ported universities.  The  average  earnings  of  laborers 
in  the  anthracite  coal  industry,  according  to  figures  of 
the  U.  S.  Department  of  Labor  Bureau  and  Statistics, 
in  the  year  1919-1920,  was  $73.39  semi-monthly,  or 
$1,761.36  per  year.  Compare  this  with  the  average  of 
the  assistant  professors  in  our  land  grant  colleges! 

Government  statistics  give  the  average  earnings  of 
all  factory  laborers  in  the  State  of  New  York  for  the 
latter  part  of  the  year  1919  as  $26.32  per  week,  or  $4.48 
per  week  more  than  the  average  of  the  men  instructors 
in  our  state-supported  universities.  Xo  wonder  that  an 
eastern  paper,  after  reporting  that  the  Bureau  for  the 
R€-emplo}Tnent  of  Soldiers  received  in  the  same  mail  a 
request  for  a  mechanic  at  $31.00  per  week,  and  a  college 
professor  at  $19.23  per  week,  headlines  the  news  item, 
"Why  Go  to  College?" 

The  college  teacher  does  not  expect  to  make  money 
out  of  his  chosen  profession.  Whether  consciously  or 
not,  upon  entering  college  walls  for  his  life  work,  he 
pledges  himself  to  a  life  of  material  sacrifice.  He  feels 
justified,  at  least,  in  expecting  a  living — such  a  living 
as  will  enable  him  to  work  at  his  best,  to  collect  a  few 
books,  and  to  find  some  opportunity  for  self -improvement. 
Teachers'  salaries  were  admittedly  too  low  in  the 
pre-war  period.  Since  that  time,  except  under  the  un- 
usual circumstances  of  extreme  merit,  or  rapid  promo- 
tion, there  have  been  few,  if  any,  actual  academic  salary 
increases.  Adjustments  have  been  made  from  time  to 
time,  in  order  to  keep  pace  with  the  decreasing  purchas- 
ing power  of  money.     These  have  fallen  short  of  their 


278  EDUCATION.AL  SESSION 

objective,  and  salaries  to-day,  are  relatively  lower  than 
at  any  tinie  within  the  past  decade. 

One  of  our  large  state  universities  shows  the  follow- 
ing scale  of  so-called  salary  increases  in  present  schedule, 
over  1914: 

Professors    25.1% 

Associate  professors   8.7% 

Assistant    professors    No  Increase 

Instructors    i3-7% 

The  Bureau  of  Statistics  shows  that  the  cost  of  living 
of  the  average  American  family  increased  94.8%  between 
July  19th,  1914,  and  March  1st,  1920.  Further  advances 
prior  to  July  1st  brings  the  percentage  of  increase  well 
over  the  100%  mark.  A  teacher  in  1914,  with  a  salary 
of  $4,000  per  annum  could  buy  as  much  and  was  as  well 
off  as  with  $8,000  to-day.  His  25%  increase  makes  his 
present  wage  only  $5,000,  with  a  buying  power  only  five- 
eights  as  much  as  he  had  in  the  pre-war  period.  Ex- 
pressed in  decimals,  his  buying  power  has  decreased 
ZlYiJo.  So  his  increase  has  really  been  a  delusion  and 
a  snare.  The  fact  is  that  college  teachers  are  to-day 
relatively  worse  off  than  before. 

Stories  of  great  distress  are  current  on  every  cam- 
pus— stories  of  ill-health  and  sickness  caused  by  lack  of 
proper  food;  of  families  of  teachers,  at  whose  table  the 
luxury  of  butter  is  unknown;  where  no  new  clothing 
has  been  purchased  in  years;  where  entertainments,  un- 
less free,  are  tabooed;  where  the  price  of  domestic  ser^'- 
ice  of  any  sort  is  prohibitory;  where  children  are  an  ex- 
travagance rarely  peiTuissible ;  where  the  teacher's  wife 
must  help  toward  support  by  becoming  a  wage-earner, — 
sewing  for  others,  keeping  boarders,  tutoring,  or  doing 
clerical  work.  Some  basis  there  must  be  to  all  these 
tales;  it  certainly  must  be  true  that  under  present  con- 
ditions, decent  normal  living  for  the  teacher  depending 


THE  SALARY  PROBLEM  279 

on  his  salary  alone,  is  almost  out  of  the  question.  Briefly- 
stated,  the  situation  is  this:  ''Either  salaries  must  go 
up  or  prices  come  down." 

The  question  then  is  ^^Will  prices  come  down?" 
AVill  the  present  high  cost  of  living  continue?  My  an- 
swer to  this  is  a  mere  guess.  It  is  no  better  than  yours, 
and  yours,  no  doubt,  is  as  good  as  any.  A  member  of 
the  President's  cabinet  recently  likened  the  present  price 
structure  to  a  house  just  after  an  earthquake,  either 
about  to  topple  over  or  to  settle  more  firmly  on  its  foun- 
dation. Personally,  I,  for  one,  do  not  expect  the  earth- 
quake, or  any  great  price  tumble,  which  will  materially 
reduce  the  present  cost  of  living.  Downward  adjust- 
ments there  will  be;  some  have  already  taken  place, — 
others  are  sure  to  follow.  On  the  other  hand,  many 
important  elements  in  the  cost  of  living — rent,  fuel, 
domestic  sendee,  house  furnishings,  transportation, 
amusements,  etc.,  are  to-day  higher  than  ever  and  show 
no  downward  tendencies.  All  told,  it  seems  to  me  that 
during  the  next  year  or  two  before  us,  there  will  be  no 
sweeping  reduction  in  the  cost  of  ordinarj^  living — no 
price  tumble  of  such  proportion  and  magnitude  as  will 
help  in  a  large  measure  to  solve  the  serious  problem  of 
the  teachers'  living  expenses.  If  material  relief  is  to 
come  to  him,  it  can  come  in  only  one  way,  and  that  is 
the  way  of  a  substantial  salary  increase. 

The  question  goes  beyond  that  of  mere  help  to  the 
college  teacher.  The  future  of  the  educational  system  of 
the  country  is  involved.  President  Burton  said  recently: 
''The  whole  teaching  profession  is,  at  present,  seriously 
endangered.  Men  of  first-class  ability  cannot  enter  upon 
the  teaching  career  with  assurance.  Their  self-respect 
compels  them  to  seek  other  lines  of  service."  One  hun- 
dred thousand  teaching  positions  in  the  United  States 
are  reported  as  vacant  or  filled  by  teachers  who  are  be- 


280  EDUCATI0N.\L  SESSION 

low  grade.  At  present  the  supply  of  first-class  men 
for  university  teaching  is  growing  steadily  less.  Thou- 
sands of  new  recruits  are  needed  annually.  The  serious 
problem  is  where  and  how  to  get  them.  **As  long  as 
the  economic  status  of  the  teacher  is  as  low  as  it  is  at 
present,  as  long  as  the  Ph.D.  is  graded  commercially  in 
the  class  of  cheap  labor,  no  one  can  conscientiously  ad- 
vise the  young  man  of  promise  to  enter  the  college  or  uni- 
versity branches  to  take  up  the  teaching  profession." 
Yet  '*no  man  is  too  well-equipped  or  possesses  too  much 
ability  to  perform  the  high  task  of  training  our  youth." 
No  profession  is  more  important  to  the  welfare  of  a 
state  or  nation  than  that  of  teaching.  The  present  sys- 
tem of  paying  a  lower  wage  to  teachers  than  to  other 
workers  of  equal  ability  means  a  lowering  of  standards 
in  the  future.  Only  men  of  ''mediocre  intellectual  en- 
dowment" will  enter  the  teaching  profession, — and  only 
those  will  remain  ''who  have  not  the  ambition  or  self- 
confidence  to  take  the  chance  of  a  change  of  occupation. ' ' 
As  one  cynic  has  said,  "Those  who  can,  do — those  who 
can't,  teach!" 

The  race  for  ever-increasing  salaries  may  be  over- 
done. Our  schools  cannot  and  must  not  compete  with 
the  sky-mounting  salaries  of  industry.  To  do  this,  or 
even  to  do  all  that  certain  groups  in  our  colleges  are  ask- 
ing, would  hopelessly  embarrass  the  entire  educational 
world.  The  teaching  profession  must  continue  to  have 
in  the  future,  as  it  has  always  had  in  the  past,  other 
ideals  and  other  aspirations  than  those  of  the  market- 
place. Perhaps  the  warning  of  William  James  is  needed: 
"The  fear  of  poverty  among  the  educated  classes  is  the 
worst  moral  disease  from  which  our  civilization  suf- 
fers. ' '  Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  sort  of  poverty 
which  harasses  the  body  and  breaks  down  the  spirit,  and 
which,  sooner  or  later,  leads  to  inefficiency  and  medioc- 


THE  SALARY  PROBLEM  281 

rity.  The  non-academic  world  is  prone  to  complain  of 
narrowness,  pessimism,  and  lack  of  inspiration  on  the 
part  of  college  teachers.  Perhaps  a  great  deal  of  this 
and  much  of  the  inferior  quality  of  some  of  the  teach- 
ing that  we  have  to-day,  is  directly  traceable  to  the  strain 
and  worry  on  the  part  of  the  teachers  over  their  own 
personal  finances. 

John  Stuart  Mill  says,  "Education  is  one  of  the 
subjects  which  require  to  be  considered  by  various  minds 
and  from  various  view-points. "  So  it  is  with  this  salary 
question.  Every  angle  of  it  presents  a  new  aspect  and  a 
new  problem.  Some  few  of  these  I  will  mention  briefly, 
principally  for  the  purpose  of  later  discussion : 

1 — Should  there  be  a  definite  salary  schedule?    For- 
merly the  answer  was  invariably.  No.    Latterly,  many  of 
our  leading  institutions  have  adopted  schedules.    Presi- 
dent Butler,  of  Columbia,  has  this  to  say  on  the  question : 
"There  are  grave  objections  to  fixing  a  hard  and 
fast  compensation  for  all  teachers  of  a  given  grade, 
regardless  of  their  effectiveness,  length  of  service, 
and  other  similar  considerations.     It  will  be  wise 
for  the  trustees  always  to  keep  in  their  own  hands 
the  adjustment  in  particular  instances.    But  a  strong- 
argument  may  be  made  for  fixing  and  announcing 
the  amount  which  the  trustees,  under  present  con- 
ditions, regard  as  the  suitable  normal  compensation 
for  incumbents  of  the  several  academic  grades." 
A  normal  maximum  and  minimum  salary  for  each  rank 
will  go  a  long  way  towards  removing  the  feeling  of  un- 
certainty and  doubt  now  clouding  the  minds  of  college 
faculties. 

2 — The  question  of  extra-university  employment.  To 
what  extent  should  this  be  encouraged?  What  outside 
work  is  legitimate,  and  what  discredits  and  cheapens 
both  the  university  and  the  man?    It  is  generally  con- 


282  EDUCATIOX.\L  SESSION 

ceded  that  outside  work  of  the  right  sort  broadens  and 
humanizes  the  teacher,  keeps  him  up-to-date  and  abreast 
of  the  times.  In  the  end,  it  helps  the  institution.  There 
must  be  limitations  to  all  such  outside  activities,  but 
hard  and  fast  rules  are  difficult  either  to  draft  or  main- 
tain. It  has  been  said  that  all  such  service  should  be 
public,  rather  than  i^rivate,  in  its  nature;  that  the  spirit 
of  research  and  the  purpose  of  advancing  knowledge 
in  the  teacher's  chosen  field  should  be  the  governing 
principle. 

3 — The  questions  of  teachers'  insurance,  retiring  al- 
lowance and  pensions  are  now  up  before  most  of  our  major 
institutions  for  discussion.  These  questions  will  have 
to  be  worked  out  in  a  broad  way  and  in  a  spirit  of  fair- 
ness. Of  a  like  nature  is  the  question  of  vacations  and 
the  Sabbatical  leave  of  absence  on  half-pay. 

4 — The  problem  of  the  growing  radicalism  in  our 
schools  and  colleges.  More  and  more  are  our  teachers,  es- 
pecially in  the  social  science  groups,  allying  themselves 
with  extremists,  agitators,  and  with  self-appointed  re- 
formers of  all  kinds.  ''Red  card"  socialists  are  not 
missing  from  our  faculties.  In  several  state  universities 
whole  groups  of  teachers  have  joined  the  American  Fed- 
eration of  Labor.  That  is  and  of  itself  may  not  be  very 
serious,  yet  it  tends  to  divide  the  teaching  staff  into 
groups  and  to  accentuate  differences.  Just  how  far  this 
situation  is  traceable  to  inadequate  salaries  is  hard  to 
tell;  at  any  rate,  low  salaries  have  ever  been  a  fruitful 
source  of  discontent,  which  is  always  the  fore-runner  of 
radicalism. 

5 — There  is  that  most  perplexing  question  of  the  dis- 
crimination between  the  salaries  paid  similar  positions 
on  the  same  campus.  Sometimes  there  is  a  wider  gap 
between  the  pay  of  professorships  in  the  art^  college 
and  in  the  technical  schools  (especially  law  or  medicine) 


THE  SALARY  PROBLEM  283 

than  between  instructors  and  full  professors  in  the  first 
mentioned  group.  In  schools  where  only  the  occasional 
teacher  of  rarest  talent  reaches  a  maximum  of  $4,000, 
a  wage  of  double  that  figure  is  not  uncommon  in  other 
departments  of  the  same  institution.  Yet,  unquestion- 
ably, the  arts  college  is,  or  should  be,  the  most  impor- 
tant unit  of  every  campus.  On  the  rock  of  a  liberal  edu- 
cation every  university  worthy  of  its  name  has  been 
founded,  and,  in  the  final  analysis,  on  its  character  and 
reputation  the  whole  institution  will  be  judged.  My 
plea  is  not  for  reduced  salaries  in  the  professional 
schools;  rather  for  a  grading  up  of  the  salaries  in  the 
''merely  educational"  group.  My  sympathy  is  all  for 
the  teachers  of  history,  mathematics,  and  literature,  and 
their  co-workers.  I  am  hoping  for  the  day  when  they 
will  have  their  due  reward. 

6 — The  question  of  filling  vacancies  in  college  posi- 
tions. The  present  system  amounts  to  about  this:  that 
every  college  or  university  grabs  as  many  teachers  as  pos- 
sible from  every  other  school.  They  seem  to  be  no  respect- 
ers of  time  and  place.  For  them  there  is  always  the  open 
season.  They  go  a-gunning  wherever  game  abounds  and 
a-fishing  in  anybody's  waters.  In  industry,  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  commercial  ethics.  Few  reputable  firms 
are  so  lacking  in  business  etiquette  as  to  attempt  to 
steal  away  a  neighbor's,  or  even  a  competitor's  workers, 
without  at  first  taking  up  the  matter  with  the  chief 
executive  in  advance.  No  such  consideration  is  shown 
by  our  universities.  If  they  want  a  man  for  a  given 
position,  they  go  after  him  without  any  asking  or  any 
by  your  leave.  This  suggests  another  point  of  even 
greater  importance.  The  system  in  vogue  in  many 
schools  of  making  salary  increases  mainly  dependent 
upon  an  offer  from  some  other  institution,  is  indefensi- 
ble and  demoralizing.    It  puts  the  premium  on  the  floater 


284  EDUCATIOX.\L  SESSION 

and  the  discontented, — those  who  regard  every  position 
as  temporary  and  who  are  always  angling  for  other 
jobs.  It  leads  to  "inspired  calls,"  and  sometimes  to 
imaginary  ones.  It  tends  to  discrimination  and  unfair- 
ness, and  puts  the  salary  schedule  out  of  joint.  The  pre- 
mium is  on  the  self-advertiser,  and  the  loyal,  faithful, 
modest  worker,  who,  perhaps,  is  the  ablest  teacher  in 
the  school,  is  apt  to  be  overlooked.  It  is  a  most  expen- 
sive system.  There  have  been  cases  where  a  single  va- 
cancy has  caused  five  or  six  different  schools  to  advance 
salaries  for  one  particular  position,  and  yet  left  the 
original  vacancy  unfilled. 

7 — Finally,  there  is  this  greatest  of  all  questions ;  If 
higher  salaries  are  to  be  paid,  where,  oh  where,  are  our 
universities,  especially  our  state  universities,  to  get  the 
funds  for  this  purpose?  Their  sources  of  revenue  are 
limited.     Briefly,  they  are  four  in  number: 

A.  The  income  from  investments,  land-grants,  etc. — 
Practically  a  fixed  amount  and  not  easily  increased. 

B.  From  the  United  States  govenmient. — Sums  re- 
ceived for  special  purposes  and  not  to  be  diverted. 

C.  From  state  appropriations. — The  usual  unthink- 
ing remark  that  one  so  often  hears  (especially  from 
faculty  members)  is,  ''That  state  is  rich."  True 
enough,  but  the  wealth  of  the  state  for  the  most 
part  is  in  the  hands  of  its  citizens  and  can  only 
be  made  available  for  educatioal  purposes  after 
a  long,  and  at  times  rather  trying,  process.  There 
are  definite  limits  to  the  amount  that  can  wisely 
be  raised  by  taxation.  Not  a  few  believe  that  this 
limit  has  already  been  reached. 

D.  From  student  fees. — For  state  universities,  this  is 
a  source  that  should  be  tapped  only  as  the  ulti- 
mate resort.  The  ideals  of  these  institutions  should 
be   "free   education."     Only   sen'ice   enterprises, 


THE  SALARY  PROBLEM  285 

such  as  the  furnishing  of  food,  housing,  health  ser- 
vice, and  the  like,  should  be  a  charge  upon  the 
students. 
There  remains  one,  and  as  far  as  I  know,  only  one, 
possible  source  of  revenue,— one,  which  as  yet  has  been 
but  slightly  drawn  upon  by  our  state  universities.     It 
takes  the  form  of  endowments,  gifts,  legacies,  and  memo- 
rials from  alumni,  friends,  and  the  public  at  large.    State- 
endowed  schools  have  been  very  loath  to  develop  this 
source  of  income.    Possibly  the  needs  and  necessities  of 
the  future  will  drive  them  to  it. 

In  conclusion,  I  quote  from  the  summary  of  a  report 
of  the  Minnesota  Survey  Commission,  changing  and 
paraphrasing  it  slightly  so  as  to  make  its  application 
more  general: 

''Certain  facts  are  well  established  and  recognized 
by  all  institutions. 

I.  The  salaries  were  too  low  in  1913-1914  to  at- 
tract a  sufficient  number  of  the  finest  types  of  instructors. 

II.  The  increases  granted  since  then  do  not  equal 
the  increases  in  the  cost  of  living. 

III.  The  universities  are  now  relatively  worse  off 
than  in  1913-1914. 

IV.  Any  institution  that  now  fails  to  make  in- 
creases in  salaries,  loses  its  relative  position  among 
American  universities. 

V.  Years  of  effort  and  much  money  are  necessary 
to  re-establish  the  personnel  and  reputation  of  an  insti- 
tution, which  once  loses  its  standing." 

The  time  has  now  come  when  the  people  of  these 
mid-western  states  must  determine  the  question  of 
whether  they  desire  to  maintain  the  present  standing  of 
their  universities.  These  must  receive  a  large  increase 
in  revenue  if  past  achievements  are  to  be  maintained. 


STUDENT  FEES  AXD  TUITIOX  CHAEGES 


HON.   THEODORE   M.   HAMMOND 

Regent  of  the  University  of  Wisco?isi}} 


Graded  and  secondary  schools  are  established  every- 
where by  state  constitutions,  and  the  prime  character- 
istic of  their  establishment  is  that  these  schools  shall  be 
''free  and  without  charge  for  tuition."  This  is  the  basic 
idea — that  educational  facilities  shall  be  available  to  all 
the  children  of  the  state  and  that  all  the  necessary  ex- 
penses of  conducting  them  be  borne  by  all  taxpayers, 
whether  these  taxpayers  be  parents  or  not. 

I  think  without  exception  every  community  in  the 
country  bears  the  expense  of  teaching  and  of  the  superin- 
tendence and  maintenance  of  buildings  and  grounds.  In 
most  of  the  large  cities  the  local  government  bears  also 
the  expense  of  furnishing  school  books,  and  in  many  com- 
munities, particularly  the  rural  ones,  free  meals,  or  meals 
at  exact  cost,  or  free  partial  meals  are  not  at  all  xm- 
common,  but  it  is  also  true  that  these  privileges  are  limit- 
ed to  bona  fide  residents  of  the  community,  and  a  nominal 
fee  charged  to  non-residents  to  at  least  partially  offset 
the  cost  of  tuition. 

While  this  is  the  situation  with  regard  to  the  public 
school,  and  while  there  has  never  yet  been  any  appreci- 
able or  expressed  objection  to  this  freedom  of  service,  the 
situation  with  regard  to  normal  schools  and  state  uni- 
versities is  not  so  clearly  defined  by  statute  or  by  custom, 
and  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  opposition  to  the  entire 
freedom  of  so-called  higher  education  is  always  present, 
though  happily  seldom  insurmountable.    True,  state  uni- 


STUDENT  FEES  287 

versities  were  created  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  furnish- 
ing the  benefits  of  higher  education  to  the  youth  of  the 
state  at  the  expense  of  all  the  taxpayers  and  at  a  mini- 
mum of  cost  to  the  student,  on  the  indisputable  theory 
that  every  educated  youth  is  a  commercial,  as  well  as  an 
ethical,  asset.     Here  again  arises  the  question  of  what 
constitutes,  or  rather,  what  is  included  in  the  term,  <^  tui- 
tion."   In  our  own  State  of  Wisconsin  this  question  was 
decided  by  the  Supreme  Court  about  forty  years  ago, 
when  a  resident  of  the  state,  who  was  a  law  student  in 
the  university,  refused  to  pay  an  incidental  fee  of  $4.00, 
on  the  theory  that  the  constitution  of  the  state  guaran- 
teed him  free  tuition.     The  regents  excluded  him  from 
attendance  upon  classes.     Mandamus  proceedings  were 
instituted  by  the  embryo  lawyer  and  the  case  was  car- 
ried to  the  Supreme  Court,  which  decided  that,  whereas 
tuition,  per  se,  was  free  to  every  resident  of  the  state, 
the  necessary  heating  and  lighting  of  the  rooms  of  the 
university  constituted  a  necessary  expense    in    accom- 
plishing the  aims  set  forth  in  the  statute  establishing 
the  university,  and  that  under  that  statute    the    state 
could  exact  a  reasonable  proportionate  sum  to  be  used 
in  meeting  such  expenses,  to  be  known  as  an  incidental 
fee.    This  same  Supreme  Court's  decision  also  calls  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that,  while  the  constitution  provides 
that  all  district  schools  shall  be  free  and  without  charge 
to  the  residents  of  the  state  between  the  ages  of  four 
and  twenty  years,  no  such  restriction  is  mentioned  as  to 
fees  or  charges  to  be  paid  by  students  in  academies,  nor- 
mal schools,  the  university,  or  any  of  the  schools  con- 
nected therewith. 

The  Board  of  Regents  of  the  University  of  Wiscon- 
sin, having  no  authority  or  powers  other  than  that  con- 
ferred upon  it  by  statute,  has  therefore  maintained  that 
free  tuition  meant  only  what  it  said,  and  has  exacted 


288  EDUCATION.^L  SESSION 

reasonable  fees  for  service  other  than  teaching,  and  so 
far  as  my  information  goes,  has  set  the  pace  for  a  number 
of  other  state  miiversities. 

Unfortunately,  we  have  not  always  had  entirely 
plain  sailing  in  our  relations  with  our  state  legislature, 
and  from  time  to  time  certain  dissatisfied  elements  in 
the  legislature  have  brought  pressure  to  bear  to  increase 
the  revenues — a  state  of  mind  no  doubt  brought  about 
in  part  by  the  necessarily  heavy  building  expenses  in 
the  last  score  of  years,  with  the  result  that  a  number  of 
charges  have  been  brought  about,  mainly  the  raising  of 
the  non-resident  tuition  fee  from  $50.00  to  $124.00,  and 
the  charging  of  tuition  for  extra  studies,  and  for  stu- 
dents in  university  extension  and  summer  session  divi- 
sions, all  of  which  charges  are  authorized  by  the  ingen- 
ious language  of  the  above  mentioned  supreme  court 
decision. 

I  am  informed  that  recently  the  oflScers  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan  caused  to  be  made  a  complete  study 
of  the  subject  of  fees  for  matriculation,  diplomas,  inci- 
dentals, hospitals,  etc.,  at  various  leading  universities, 
and  that  this  study  brings  out  the  fact  that  a  non-resident 
tuition  fee  is  charged  at  Michigan,  Minnesota,  Wiscon- 
sin, Indiana,  and  California,  with  a  uniform  fee  for  resi- 
dents and  non-residents  at  Illinois  and  Ohio.  There  ap- 
pears also  to  be  a  wide  divergence  between  the  sums 
charged  for  non-resident  tuition,  ranging  from  a  mini- 
mum of  $20.00  at  California  to  a  maximum  of  $124.00 
at  Wisconsin. 

Just  a  word  as  to  the  maximum  non-resident  fee  of 
$124.00  charged  at  Wisconsin.  This  sum  was  fixed  by 
legislative  enactment,  and  in  opposition  to  the  expressed 
opinion  of  the  regents  as  to  its  entire  propriety,  and  is 
considerably  in  excess  of  the  amount  that  was  recom- 
mended by  the  regents.    The  law  was  passed,  but  a  con- 


STUDENT  FEES  289 

ciliatory  amendment  was  added,  under  the  terms  of 
which  the  regents  may  give  free  tuition  to  a  number 
of  non-resident  students  amounting  to  eight  per  cent  of 
the  total  non-resident  enrollment.  Naturally,  there  is  a 
keen  competition  for  this  advantage,  and  the  effect  upon 
non-resident  scholarship  in  general  has  been  decidedly 
salutary.  About  twenty  per  cent  of  these  free  tuitions 
are  awarded  to  graduate  students,  thus  recognizing  the 
advisability  of  encouraging  non-residents  to  engage  in 
graduate  work. 

The  contention  of  our  legislature  was  that  the  im- 
position of  this  heavy  non-resident  fee  had  become  neces- 
sary by  reason  of  the  increasing  financial  burden  of  car- 
rying the  university,  and  that  it  was  desirable  to  place 
the  excess  cost  of  carrying  non-residents  upon  the  non- 
residents who  secured  the  benefits,  and  it  is  fair  to  pre- 
sume that  every  other  state  legislature  which  has  im- 
posed a  non-resident  tuition  fee  has  done  so  upon  an  en- 
tirely similar  contention,  and  yet  it  is  difficult  to  see  how 
$20.00  should  cover  this  excess  cost  in  one  state,  and 
certainly  $124.00  more  than  covers  it  in  ours. 

We  must  here  bear  in  mind  the  distinct  difference 
between  what  is  known  as  excess  cost  to  the  state  and 
average  cost  to  the  state.  As  to  average  cost  per  capita 
to  the  state,  I  remember  one  very  amusing  incident  that 
took  place  in  Wisconsin  during  the  celebrated  Allen  sur- 
vey in  1913.  Sitting  in  the  office  of  our  then  business 
manager.  Dr.  Bumpus,  later  President  of  Tuft's  College, 
I  was  conversing  with  him  when  in  came  a  messenger 
from  the  office  of  the  Allen  survey  with  a  request  from 
Dr.  Allen  for  a  statement  of  the  exact  per  capita  cost 
to  the  state  during  the  preceding  biennium.  Dr.  Bumpus 
sent  word  back  that  he  should  be  pleased  to  furnish  such 
a  statement  if  Dr.  Allen  would  kindly  indicate  just  what 
he  wanted  the  figure  to  be,  ''For,"  said  he,  "I  can  fur- 


290  EDUCATIOX.U  SESSION 

nisli  indisputable  figures  and  statistics  proving  beyond 
the  possibility  of  contradiction  that  it  is  $81.67  or  $412.44, 
or  any  figure  in  between, ' '  and  I  have  no  doubt  his  state- 
ment will  be  appreciated  by  anyone  who  has  juggled 
with  the  figures  of  a  great  university. 

However,  the  accountants  at  all  state  universities 
agree  that  while  no  exact  figure  can  be  set  down,  it  is 
entirely  fair  to  say  that  $200.00  will  approximate  the 
average  cost  per  student  to  the  state,  including  in  this 
all  direct  and  indirect  expenses  for  instructional  and 
its  associated  research  work  done  in  residence. 

If  this  figure  of  $200.00  be  taken  as  the  approxi- 
mately correct  average  cost,  and  if  the  principle  were 
advocated  of  charging  non-resident  students  the  average 
cost,  this  would  bring  non-resident  tuition  fee  far  in  ad- 
vance of  the  maximum  now  in  force  at  Wisconsin  and 
would  put  it  in  the  class  of  the  large  endowed  institu- 
tions. If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  were  argued  that  non- 
residents should  be  charged  only  the  excess  cost,  it  is 
quite  probable  that  California's  minimum  will  not  cover 
the  cost,  and  for  purposes  of  discussion,  it  might  be  well 
to  suggest  for  a  non-resident  tuition  fee  a  uniform  sum 
of  $100.00  per  year  per  student,  or  one-half  of  the  ap- 
proximate average  cost. 

All  universities  recognize  the  advantage  to  them  of 
an  interchange  of  non-resident  students,  and  it  goes 
without  sa}T.ng  that  there  would  be  a  vast  advantage 
to  the  non-resident  student  population  in  being  able  to 
plan  their  chosen  work  on  a  uniform  financial  basis,  for 
it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  non-resident  student 
is  the  serious-minded  student,  and  usually  the  student 
with  the  lean  and  hungry  purse. 

I  therefore  suggest,  as  my  contribution  to  this  forum, 
that  steps  be  taken  among  all  middle-west  state  univer- 


STUDENT  FEES  291 

sities  to  accomplish  legislation  looking  toward  a  uni- 
form $100.00  per  year  non-resident  fee. 

As  to  other  student  fees,  a  careful  study  of  the  pres- 
ent situation  suggests  no  possible  uniform  arrangement, 
as  circumstances  vary  so  greatly  in  different  institutions. 
A  matriculation  and  a  diploma  fee  are  practically  the 
same  thing  in  effect,  as  each  is  levied  only  once. 

There  is  undoubtedly  considerable  justice  in  charg- 
ing a  matriculation  or  entrance  fee,  for  every  student 
who  enrolls  at  an  institution  must  be  accounted  for  by 
records  kept  practically  in  perpetuity,  independent  of 
whether  the  student  stays  a  semester,  or  completes  a 
four-year  course.  This  naturally  entails  an  expense 
which  can  best  be  apportioned  by  charging  all  students 
a  matriculation  fee. 

A  diploma  fee  covers  expenses  somewhat  similar  to 
the  expenses  presumably  met  by  a  matriculation  fee, 
and  an  analysis  shows  that  Michigan,  Illinois,  Indiana 
and  Ohio  charge  such  a  fee,  $5.00  at  Illinois,  Indiana, 
Ohio  and  the  Michigan  Agriculture  College,  and  $10.00 
at  the  University  of  Michigan.  In  endowed  institutions 
we  find  a  matriculation  fee  is  charged  at  Chicago,  Cor- 
nell, Columbia,  Pennsylvania  and  Princeton,  although 
this  is  not  necessarily  a  uniform  custom  in  all  the  col- 
leges of  the  institutions  mentioned. 

Material  differences  exist  regarding  the  diploma  fee, 
which  varies  from  $5.00  to  $10.00  at  the  state  univer- 
sities, and  from  $10.00  to  $20.00  at  endowed  institutions, 
no  diploma  fee  being  charged  at  Har\'ard. 

There  are  certain  clerical  disadvantages  of  a  matric- 
ulation fee  due  to  the  necessity  of  differentiating  between 
the  new  and  the  old  student,  and  for  that  reason  Wis- 
consin has  established  a  so-called  incidental  fee,  which 
for  many  years  was  fixed  at  $10.00  per  semester.  When 
the  privileges  of  the  gymnasium  were  made  available  to 


292  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

all  students  and  with  the  establishment  of  the  university 
clinic,  the  fee  was  increased  to  $12.00.  Recently,  with 
the  establishment  of  a  new  student  infirmary,  where 
students  are  cared  for  without  extra  cost,  the  incidental 
fee  was  increased  to  $15.00  per  semester,  $3.00  being  ap- 
plied to  the  operation  of  the  student  infirmary',  thus 
practically  providing  a  student  community  health  insur- 
ance fund. 

As  the  activities  of  our  universities  have  expanded, 
many  additional  expenses  have  been  incurred  which  are 
not  direct  teaching  expenses,  and  which  may  fairly  be 
charged  direct  to  the  students.  I  am  informed  that 
here  at  Michigan  a  $5.00  fee  is  charged  to  all  students 
for  the  support  of  their  magnificent  Union.  Students 
are  constantly  importuned  to  subscribe  for  the  support 
of  other  worthy  student  activities,  and  it  has  been  sug- 
gested that  each  student  be  charged  a  sum  which  will 
cover  the  student  daily  paper,  the  student  annual,  and 
also  support  the  conduct  of  intercollegiate  games.  This 
suggestion,  however,  is  an  extreme  one;  nevertheless  with 
comparable  facilities  for  the  care  of  student  health,  and 
for  necessary  social  activities,  there  is  ample  justifica- 
tion for  comparable  fees  covering  these  items  at  our 
various  institutions,  and  chargeable  to  all  students  in 
residence. 

The  high  prices  which  have  existed  for  some  years, 
the  inadequate  income  under  which  the  regents  and 
trustees  have  attempted  to  conduct  state  universities, 
coupled  with  other  difficulties,  has  made  the  question  of 
fees  particularly  pertinent.  Many  of  the  state  institu- 
tions are  this  year  putting  into  effect  fees  from  twenty- 
five  per  cent  to  fifty  per  cent  above  those  existing  last 
year,  some  recognizing  this  merely  as  a  temporary  ex- 
pedient. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  all  will  agree  on  the  wis- 


STUDENT  FEES  293 

doni  of  keeping  university  expenses  to  students  as  low 
as  possible,  for  we  are  more  interested  in  helping  the 
student  of  moderate  means  who  is  ambitious  to  gain  a 
higher  education  than  the  student  of  wealth,  to  whom 
the  fees  are  at  most  a  trivial  matter.  If  this  is  recog- 
nized as  the  point  of  view  from  which  the  question  should 
be  considered,  it  is  perfectly  obvious  that  if  the  state 
legislature  will  provide  sufficient  funds  for  operation 
and  maintenance,  there  is  no  need  for  increasing  fees. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  support  from  the  state  is  in- 
sufficient, it  is  certainly  justifiable  for  the  regents  or 
trustees  to  increase  fees  in  order  to  enable  a  more  ef- 
fective conduct  of  university  work. 

There  are  actually  some  advantages  of  flexibility  to 
this  fee  situation,  and  as  differences  in  available  state 
funds  must  of  necessity  vary  with  our  state  institutions, 
there  is  no  material  advantage  in  suggesting  uniformity 
of  fees  other  than  the  non-resident  tuition  fees. 

Any  tendency  toward  extreme  student  fees  will  nat- 
urally be  checked,  for  if  fees  of  this  type  are  raised  to 
a  point  comparable  to  those  of  endowed  institutions, 
then  the  state  has  distinctly  failed  in  its  efforts  to  pro- 
vide higher  education  at  moderate  cost  to  the  youth  of 
the  state.  And  I  may  add  here  a  brief  page  from  my 
own  experience  in  the  matter  of  the  meeting  of  college 
expenses  by  the  financially  poor  student.  I  am  well 
aware  that  my  statement  may  be  challenged,  but  I  think 
I  am  right  in  my  conclusions. 

Back  in  1891,  when  the  new  University  of  Chicago 
organization  was  just  taking  shape,  I  went  to  Dr.  Har- 
per, whom  I  had  known  intimately  in  a  personal  way 
since  his  boyhood,  and  long  before  he  had  become  a  great 
man,  and  told  him  of  my  observation  of  the  struggling 
students  in  the  days  of  the  old  University  of  Chicago, 
and  how  all  the  boys  had  worked  their  way  at  odd  jobs 


294  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

throughout  their  courses,  and  laid  out  to  him  a  plan 
which  I  had  formulated  for  the  organization  of  a  sys- 
tematic employment  bureau,  to  be  operated  by  the  uni- 
versity, for  the  purpose  of  furnishing  employment  to 
needy  students,  and  for  controlling  a  series  of  so-called 
jobs  in  perpetuity,  with  a  complete  system  of  checks 
upon  the  work  performed,  money  earned,  etc.  The  plan 
was  adopted  by  the  new  university  and  I  was  selected 
as  its  first  bureau  chief,  my  first  official  bulletin  cover- 
ing the  plan  being  issued  in  the  spring  of  1892,  some 
six  months  before  the  opening  of  the  new  university. 
The  plan  was  a  success,  and  has  been  adopted  almost  in 
its  entirety  by  practically  all  the  larger  institutions 
since  that  time.  I  left  the  university  in  1897,  after  hav- 
ing furnished  employment  to  something  over  three  thou- 
sand students  altogether.  Naturally,  I  have  been  inter- 
ested in  keeping  a  check,  as  far  as  possible,  throughout 
the  following  years  upon  those  young  men  and  young 
women  who  were  the  recipients  of  aid  at  the  hands  of  the 
organized  employment  bureau,  and  my  definite  conclu- 
sion is  that  the  aided  student  has  not  succeeded  in  after 
life  to  the  same  extent  as  has  the  student  whose  way 
was  paid  by  parents  or  friends.  His  health  has  not  been 
as  good,  and  he  has  been  lacking  in  initiative  and  in  ac- 
complishment. I  am  well  aware  that  there  are  glaring 
exceptions  to  this  statement,  but  in  looking  at  a  ques- 
tion of  this  character,  we  must  look  at  a  large  number 
of  cases,  just  as  an  insurance  company  determines  tables 
of  mortality.  One  man  who  is  insured  in  a  life  insur- 
ance company  may  have  an  expectancy  of  twenty  years 
of  life  and  may  live  sixty  years  afterward,  but  many 
thousands  will  die  just  exactly  according  to  schedules 
of  mortality. 

The  university  course  of  to-day  is  a  strenuous  one. 
At  best,  it  is  an  expensive  one.     There  is  not  an  idle 


STUDENT  FEES  295 

hour  provided  for,  and  there  is  precious  little  that  is  free. 
The  student  who  gets  what  he  should  get  out  of  his  col- 
lege course  has  plenty  of  work  and  a  minimum  of  rec- 
reation mapped  out  for  him,  if  he  gives  no  thought  to  his 
expenses,  or,  rather,  to  the  source  of  his  income.  Few 
indeed  are  the  students  who  are  so  constituted  physically 
that  they  can  carry  the  full  college  course  and  meanwhile 
earn  money  with  which  to  pay  for  it,  either  in  whole 
or  in  part,  and  carrying  away  their  diploma  with  ' '  mens 
Sana  in  corpore  sano."  My  contention,  after  all  these 
years  of  observation,  is  that  the  young  man  has  got  to 
begin  hustling  soon  enough,  and  has  got  to  keep  it  up 
long  enough  after  he  starts,  and  that  in  all  good  con- 
science he  is  entitled  to  all  the  joys  of  life  during  those 
splendid  days  of  student  life,  days  which  will  never  come 
again,  and  which  ought  to  bear  fruit  in  a  memory  of 
golden  days;  sentimental,  care-free  days,  rather  than  a 
memory  of  the  eternal  grind  and  the  midnight  oil. 

It  is  no  disgrace  to  be  poor;  it  is  no  disgrace  to  bor- 
row money  with  which  to  pay  for  an  education.  The 
man  who  is  compelled  to  borrow  it  is  in  better  shape  to 
earn  money  and  pay  back  what  he  borrowed  after  his 
graduation,  than  the  man  who  worked  his  way  through 
is  to  even  pay  his  own  way,  with  no  debt  to  liquidate. 
And  so,  while  I  lay  claim  to  the  establishment  of  the 
organized  student  employment  bureau,  I  freely  admit 
that  I  have  no  such  claim  to  immortality  as  has  the  man 
who  established  the  idea  of  a  university  loan  fund,  which 
gives  a  better  opportunity  to  the  poor  student,  and  at 
the  same  time  gives  him  the  idea  that  life  has  some 
sunshine  and  is  not  all  shadow.  I  am  convinced  that 
the  well-meaning  philanthropist  who  leaves  a  loan  fund 
legacy  to  a  university  does  a  far  greater  good  than  does 
he  who  builds  a  chapel  or  a  gymnasium  which  shall  have 
his  name  carved  over  the  door. 


296  EDUCATIONAL  SESSION 

Wisconsin's  plan  of  the  remission  of  tuition  to  a 
maximum  of  eight  per  cent  of  the  non-resident  popula- 
tion is  a  step  in  the  right  direction.  We  aim  to  remit 
these  fees  in  cases  where  the  student  is  not  only  unable 
to  pay,  but  unable  comfortably  to  borrow,  and  we  claim 
that  the  plan  is  highly  successful  and  satisfactory  to  all 
concerned. 

I  have  been  assigned  a  dry  subject,  comparable  per- 
haps with  the  city  directory  or  the  multiplication  table, 
and  I  have  found  it  a  difficult  matter  to  keep  from  be- 
ing extraordinarily  dry  and  boresome  after  such  a  feast 
of  reason  and  flow  of  soul  as  has  been  your  portion  dur- 
ing these  few  days.  To  sum  up,  perhaps  all  I  have  said 
may  be  compassed  in  a  few  brief  sentences. 

First :  There  should  be  a  uniformity  in  non-resident 
tuition  fees. 

Second:  Extra-curricular  expenses  should  be  borne 
by  the  student. 

Third:  A  certain  proportion  of  deserving  students 
should  enjoy  a  remission  of  fees. 

Fourth:  Students  should  be  advised  against  en- 
deavoring to  earn  their  way  through  college. 

Fifth:  Permanent  loan  funds  should  be  solicited, 
or,  better  still,  established  by  appropriation. 

If  any  or  all  of  these  suggestions  shall  eventually 
bear  fruit,  I  think  we  shall  all  feel  that  we  have  not  lived 
and  labored  in  vain. 


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